Ruth Ramsay Arrington

Ruth Ramsay Arrington passed away peacefully on Saturday, the 10th of March 2012, at the age of 93. She was born to Maude Parker and Roy Allen Ramsay in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on the 5th of September 1918. Ruth spent her early years moving around the country with her mother and father; and she loved to tell stories of her days in Buffalo, Missouri; Brookings, Oregon; Crannell, California; Grand Junction, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas. She graduated from Fort Worth Central High School in 1934.

In the fall of 1934, just before her sixteenth birthday, she entered Texas Christian University as a freshman, majoring in chemistry. In 1935, her family moved back to Oklahoma, and she transferred to the University of Tulsa, where she enrolled as a chemical engineering major and joined Chi Omega sorority. In 1936, she was honored as the “Engineer’s Queen” during the campus engineering week. It was at the engineering college where she met her husband, James Rogers Arrington. Ruth graduated in 1939 and was the first woman to graduate from the University of Tulsa engineering college. In those days, no one would hire a woman as a chemical engineer, and Ruth felt fortunate to work as a chemistry instructor at the University of Tulsa. On the 26th of June 1942, Ruth married Jim Arrington in Tulsa, where they lived until 1960 when Jim’s career in the oil industry moved their family to Houston.

Ruth loved to play the piano, play tennis, and play golf, and she enjoyed being a part of her Chi Omega bridge club for 50 years. She was an active member of P.E.O. for many years and always continued to have a passion for the study of chemistry. After Jim’s retirement in 1975, they enjoyed traveling, playing golf, and spending time with their family and friends. Ruth and Jim were a wonderful team until his death in December 2009. Ruth will always be remembered as a devoted and caring wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, whom her grandchildren and great-grandchildren lovingly called “Oma.”

She is survived by her daughter, Joyce Arrington Smith; daughter, Joan Arrington Miers; grandson, Jeffrey Miers, his wife Amy, and their children Sloan, Brooke, and Blake; granddaughter, Stacy Miers Rider, her husband Tim, and their son Turner; granddaughter, Jamie Smith Luff, her husband Martin, and their son James; sister, Edith Ramsay Reid, and her husband Richard; niece, Gretchen Reid Schulz, her husband Steve, and their children Shelby and Sean; nephew, Philip Reid, and his son Jake; nephew, David Reid, and his wife Tracey; and many other members of her extended family.

Ruth’s family would like to thank Mary DeAnda and her assistants and Odyssey Hospice for their care and support.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock this afternoon until seven o’clock this evening, Monday, the 12th of March, at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A memorial service, celebrating Ruth’s life, is to be conducted at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning, Tuesday, the 13th of March, in the chapel of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer Road in Houston, where Dr. Linda Christians, Executive Pastor, is to officiate. Immediately following the service, everyone is invited to join the family for a reception in the Hines Baker Room.

Prior to the service, the family will gather for a private interment at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of usual remembrances, contributions in Ruth’s memory may be directed to the University of Tulsa, College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, 800 So. Tucker Dr., Tulsa, OK, 74104; or to St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, P. O. Box 22013, Houston, TX, 77227.