Former principal was a Fulbright scholar

11/26/2001

MONROE - Ruth P. Price, a retired educator and an active community volunteer, died of congestive heart failure Friday in Mercy Memorial Hospital. She was 97.

Mrs. Price retired in 1973 as principal of St. Mary's Academy, which she had joined after a long career in the Monroe school district.

She had been principal for 10 years at the former Boyd Elementary School and a teacher at Lincoln Elementary for 16 years before that.

Earlier in her career she had taught in Glassmere, Pa., and in Leipsic.

Mrs Price was a native of Turtle Creek, Pa. She married Raymond Price in 1925 in Wellsburg, W.Va. He died eight years later.

During the 1940s, Mrs. Price earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toledo.

She spent 1952-53 in England as a Fulbright scholar, and later did postgraduate study in Mexico, Spain, and Hawaii.

“She was one of the earliest women to earn a Fulbright,” her granddaughter, Sharon Gaertner, said. “She would do her other postgraduate studies during the summer, when school was not in session.”

Mrs. Gaertner described her grandmother as “an avid reader. She always had a jigsaw puzzle going on the table.”

Mrs. Price was a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, where over the years she served as junior superintendent and as an adult Sunday school teacher.

“She was a very strong woman, with very high standards. She was very concerned about serving others,” said the Rev. Jacqueline Holdsworth, co-pastor at St Paul's Church.

Mrs. Price also volunteered her time for Mercy Memorial Hospital, the Monroe County Historical Society, and at the Monroe County court house information booth.

In 1991, she was presented with the Monroe County Golden Heart Award in recognition of her volunteer work.

Other memberships included the Monroe Council of Churches, the American Association of University Women, Monroe Business and Professional Women, and the Michigan Association of Retired School Personnel.

Surviving are her granddaughter, a great granddaughter, and a son-in-law.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Earle Little Funeral Home, Bacarella Chapel, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow.