RUTH ELIZABETH COOKE
(Professor Ruth Grahame,
MD, MSc)
On Wednesday,
December 19, 2012 Ruth died at the age of 87 years from breast cancer.
Ruth was born in 1925
and raised in Stony Mountain and Winnipeg. She is survived by her loving husband
of 63 years, Robert (Bob) Leighton Cooke, brother Gordon Grahame and four
children, Mary Ellen (Toronto), Robert (Toronto, Liesel Putrycz), Andrew
(Winnipeg, Pamela Woodmass) and Sheila Cooke-Witt (Hamburg Germany, Karsten
Witt). She has 11 grandchildren.
Ruth attended Laura
Secord and Gordon Bell Schools where she developed lifelong friendships. She
graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba in 1949. In the
final year of Medicine she was voted Senior Stick (Class President) by her
classmates and she broke her leg on a class ski trip to La Riviere. While
attending hospital rounds in a wheel chair she caught the eye of a dashing
young surgeon returned from the war. Ruth and Bob were married in Dec
1949. Reflecting on her long and happy marriage she would say “we laughed
a lot and had so much fun!”
In the mid-1960s with
the enthusiastic support of her husband, Ruth returned to university to earn a
Master of Science. She then resumed her medical career in the Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Anatomy where she rose to Associate Professor. An
entire generation of Manitoban doctors, dentists, physiotherapists,
occupational therapists, and dental hygienists were trained by her in Gross
Anatomy, Neuro-Anatomy and Embryology. As well she supervised Masters and PhD
candidates. She was Undergraduate Curriculum Coordinator for the medical
school. She served on innumerable university committees, and co-authored
several anatomical text books. She was voted Professor of the Year by the Class
of 1974. She retired in 1988.
In her personal life,
Ruth loved to cook, entertain, and dance. She was an avid reader and a devoted
patron of opera and Dixieland jazz. In the summertime, usually on her own, she
would fearlessly ferry her 4 children in a small open boat to a remote cottage
with neither phone nor electricity where she dealt with a cranky propane
fridge, a wood stove and nosy bears in her kitchen.
After retirement,
Ruth continued to live life to the fullest, traveling the world with her
husband, enjoying her adored grandchildren and participating in the University
Women’s Club and The Twenty Club. She and Bob took great pride in their
children, three MDs and an MBA.
A celebration of her
life will be held Saturday, January 19th, from 2 to 6 p.m. at 970
Wellington Crescent. Friends, neighbours and colleagues are all welcome. Her
ashes will be placed in a favourite family location. In lieu of flowers a
donation may be made to the University of Manitoba, School of Medical
Rehabilitation.
Richard
Wojcik, Funeral Director of Wojcik’s Funeral Chapel & Crematorium, is in
care of arrangements, 204 – 897 - 4665.
Wojcik’s
FUNERAL CHAPEL & CREMATORIUM
2157 PORTAGE AVENUE
204 – 897 - 4665
No comments:
Post a Comment