Ruth H. Becker

BECKER, SALZMANN, BRYANT, VICHULES

Posted By: Tara (email)
Date: 6/26/2009 at 11:47:48

Ruth was born in Berlin, Germany on March 6, 1922, the daughter of Dr. Hans and Kathe Salzmann, but was rescued from the Nazi regime in 1939 by the British-organized Kindertransport. She lived with a British family for a year and then sailed to New York City to rejoin her family who had been interned in Cuba. She earned her nursing degree and taught at Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in New York and her BS and MS degrees at Columbia University. She moved to Iowa City in 1952 to join the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Nursing and married Samuel Becker in 1953.

Ruth helped to develop the Johnson County Association for Retarded Children and was instrumental in establishing the first pre-school for retarded children in the county. She also set up and supervised a summer program for retarded children in 1968.

Together with board members of the ARC she did the preliminary investigation for a possible sheltered workshop for handicapped adults that resulted in the present-day Goodwill Industries of Southeast Iowa and was a charter member of the Goodwill Auxiliary. She later served on Goodwill’s Board of Directors.

Ruth helped to establish Iowa City’s Hospice organization in 1983 and helped run training sessions for new volunteers from 1983 to approximately 1988, and also served as a volunteer care-giver from 1984 to 2000. She was honored in 1990 as Hospice Volunteer of the Year and received the Helen Zervas Award for her various contributions to Hospice.

She was president of the Johnson County Democratic Women’s Club in 1967 and 1968, and was a delegate to the Democratic state political convention in 1968.

In 1999 Ruth received the Johnson County’s ARC's first annual award for “outstanding contributions to the cause of retarded citizens.” For subsequent years, the award was renamed “The Ruth Becker Award.”

A “Ruth Becker Award” was also established in 1991 at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City for the nurse providing the most outstanding care to patients.

Her parents and daughter Anne preceded Ruth in death. She is survived by her husband Sam of 54 years, son Craig and his family in Chicago, daughter Judy Bryant and her family in Tampa, Florida, and sister Eva Vichules in Tempe, Arizona, grandsons Tom and Isaac of Chicago and Sam and Ben of Tampa, FL.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Iowa City Hospice (1025 Wade Street)), Mercy Hospital Foundation, or Systems Unlimited, 1556 S. 1st Ave. in Iowa City.