Ruth Wegat, a former principal of Chicago’s Lloyd Elementary School, died of a brain tumor Saturdayat the Presbyterian Homes in Evanston.
Born and raised in Chicago, Miss Wegat, 87, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Northwestern University in Evanston, said her cousin Robert G. Burkhardt.
Miss Wegat began her career in 1940 in the Chicago Public Schools office, her cousin said. After teaching subjects from typing to German at various Chicago elementary and high schools, she was appointed principal at Lloyd in 1958, he said. She led the school until retiring in 1976, he said.
“She was a great teacher, but she was tough–she was a disciplinarian,” Burkhardt said.
Miss Wegat also was an intrepid traveler. She visited China, Africa and communist East Berlin; she went in search of whales off the Baja California peninsula and polar bears in Canada, her cousin said. And she was one of few women on a sometimes hair-raising journey to the Antarctic in 1966, he said.
Other survivors include her cousins Robert C. and Barbara Burkhardt, and a goddaughter, Bonnie Anderson.
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Drake & Son Funeral Home, 5303 N. Western Ave., Chicago, and from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Luther Memorial Church, 2500 W. Wilson Ave. A funeral will follow at 11 a.m. at the church.
