Ruth completed her undergraduate studies in Art History at Wellesley College, where she continued to be very active in alumni programs for all her life; she received her M.S. in Applied Mathematics at New York University before teaching math at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now NYU Tandon School of Engineering), and at Lawrence Technological University for 36 years starting in 1973, becoming full professor in 2004. Amongst many topics, she most liked teaching Partial Differential Equations as well as the intersection of Mathematics and Art.
In 1957, she married Lawrence ‘Skip’ Favro; they remained devoted to each other for 66 years until her death.
In her time off from teaching she was a prolific traveler with yearly fishing trips to Montana, solo bike trips through Europe, and trips to both Uganda and China. She enjoyed fly fishing on the Au Sable and Manistee rivers in Michigan, and the Missouri and Bitterroot rivers in Montana. Ruth was a very creative person, drawing and painting from a young age, and as an adult expanding into ceramics, learning the pottery craft at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit and eventually specializing in the Raku technique.
A life-long athlete, after having played competitive tennis as a teenager and in college, Ruth played squash for many years, until the age of 85.
Ruth was especially beloved by the many youths whom she mentored, coached, and tutored through the years, especially the high school math competition teams that she coached. As a long-time coach of the “Michigan All-Stars” team in the prestigious ARML competition, she helped propel them to repeated successes on a national level. Ruth was very active in the community and volunteered for many organizations including Math Association of America, American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), Racquet Up Detroit, and Michigan Math Prize Competition.
She was the recipient of multiple professional awards during her career, including the 2012 Meritorious Service Award from the Math Association of America, and the 2015 Samuel L. Geitzer Distinguished Coach award from ARML.
She is survived by her husband, Dr. Lawrence ‘Skip’ Favro; daughter Anita (and Tom); son David (and Linh); sister Amy Greenfield; and grandsons Kyle and Connor.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the American Heart Association.
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