As a school superintendent in the 1940s and 1950s, Wesley Roberts Ruby saw small school districts consolidated into larger ones and, in the process, acrimony grow among parents, staff and educators. By 1950, he walked away from the strife to become a clothing salesman and emerged a new man, family members said.
“Prior to his leaving [education] he was always very formal,” said his son Mark, the former mayor of North Aurora. “He didn’t believe in nicknames; even his best friends called him Mr. Ruby. But eventually he got business cards that read Wes Ruby. There is a message there somehow in the way he changed lives.”
Mr. Ruby, 101, of Aurora, who worked for Alshuler’s Clothing Store and Weingart and Pillatsch Clothing Store in Aurora, died of natural causes Sunday, Feb. 6, in Jennings Terrace Nursing Home in Aurora.
Born on a farm in Mahaska County, Iowa, Mr. Ruby graduated from Freemont High School and then Iowa Wesleyan College. In 1931 he married his wife, Elsie, who died three years ago.
He first taught math and English in a high school in Wyman, Iowa, before he moved to Lily Lake in Kane County to become principal of a combined elementary and high school. In 1935, he received his master’s degree in education from Northwestern University.
For the next 19 years, Mr. Ruby was superintendent of schools in Grant Park in Kankakee County.
After that, he was superintendent in New Berlin in Sangamon County. Soon, the school district merged with several others.
“And that did not go well,” his son said. “That was a traumatic time with the expansion of school districts in small towns when they combined to become bigger districts. There was a lot of community jealousy, and it was not a fun time.”
He retired after one year and moved to Aurora, where he worked in the clothing stores.
“At that time downtown Aurora was the draw for the whole suburban area for businesses,” his son said. “He really thought this was a fun and nice way to meet people.”
Mr. Ruby was a longtime and active member of the Wesley United Methodist Church and a Mason for 78 years.
He also enjoyed the rapport with fellow teachers as a member of the Aurora Retired Teachers Association.
“They would talk about the new methods of teaching with open classrooms and peer counseling, and he would said, `Yea, that was like my days in school in a one-room school house,'” his son said. “He was a man who lived 101 years and remembered almost all of it. He had so many stories in his brain, I don’t know how he did it,” he added. “And he voted in the last 20 presidential elections.”
Other survivors include another son, John; a sister, Dorothy Taylor; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Services will begin at 3:30 p.m. Thursday followed by a visitation from 4 to 7 p.m. in Healy Chapel, 332 W. Downer Pl., Aurora.
