Rose Perry Ruze died peacefully on October 26, 2024, attended by her family. Rose was born on July 13, 1926, in Orange, New Jersey, to Cora May Phillips Perry and Donald Burke Perry. She graduated from Columbia High School in 1944 and Mount Holyoke College in 1948. She received an MSW from Boston University and was working at Massachusetts General Hospital as a medical social worker when she met the love of her life, John Ruze. They married on October 6, 1956. She is predeceased by her husband and leaves four children, Beth Ruze, Patricia Ruze, Katherine Walter, and John Ruze, as well as three grandchildren: Nicky Chapman, Evan Walter, and Paul Chapman.
Rose often recounted the adventure of her life when, in 1950, she joined the American Friends Service work camp in Finland. She was assigned to the Finnish/Russian border to clear land for farming. She later hitchhiked to Lapland with friends she kept close throughout her life.
Rose was an enthusiastic musician, playing French horn in the Concord and Arlington Orchestras and Concord Band. She self-published three books about family and co-edited a book about her class at Mount Holyoke.
Always an athlete, Rose was president of the Mount Holyoke Athletic Association, a competitive member of the Concord Sailfish Association and a ski patroller. Her final kayaking adventure at age 98 was in August on Bare Hill Pond in Harvard.
Rose, an active town resident since moving to Concord in 1961, held leadership positions in the Girls Scouts, Concord League of Women Voters, and Concord Orchestra and served as president of the Concord Greene Condominium board. At First Parish, she taught religious education and conducted the Junior Choir. Rose founded the Metro West Lyme Support Group which is still meeting today. She started her own preschool, Rosie’s Group, nurturing kindness and creativity in two-year-olds. A world traveler, she visited over thirty countries. Rose is remembered as a wonderful mother and devoted wife.
Her philosophy is well-expressed by her favorite benediction:
Go out into the world in peace.
Have courage.
Hold onto what is good.
Return to no person evil for evil.
Strengthen the fainthearted.
Support the weak.
Honor all beings.
A celebration of life will be held on December 19, 2024, at 10 a.m. at First Parish Church, 20 Lexington Road.
Arrangements are under the care of Concord Funeral Home, concordfuneral.com.
