Rose Perry Ruze

Rose Perry Ruze died peacefully on October 26, 2024 attended by her family. Rose was born July 13, 1926 in Orange, New Jersey to Cora May Phillips Perry and Donald Burke Perry. She graduated from Columbia High School in 1944 and Mount Holyoke College in 1948. She received an MSW from Boston University and was working at Mass General Hospital as a medical social worker when she met the love of her life, John Ruze. They married on October 6, 1956. Rose is predeceased by her husband, and leaves four children, Beth Ruze, Patricia Ruze, Katherine Walter, and John Ruze, as well as three grandchildren, Nicky Chapman, Evan Walter and Paul Chapman. 

Rose often recounted the adventure of her life when, in 1950, she joined an international volunteer American Friends Service work camp. She was assigned to the Finnish/Russian border to clear land for farming after World War II. Later, she hitchhiked to Lapland with two friends that she stayed close with throughout her lifetime. 

Rose was an enthusiastic musician, playing French horn for over fifty years including in the Concord Band and Orchestra and the Arlington Symphony. She self-published three books about her family and co-edited a book about Mount Holyoke College.

Always an athlete, Rose was President of the Mount Holyoke Athletic Association. She was a competitive member of the Concord Sailfish Association, where she and her children raced small sailboats throughout New England. Her final kayaking adventure was in August of this year, at age 98, on Bare Hill Pond in Harvard.

Rose had been an active Concord resident since 1961. She was a Girl Scout Troop Leader, a leadership member of the Concord League of Women voters, Treasurer of the Concord Orchestra and a Groton Hills and Nashoba Valley Ski Patroller. Active at the First Parish Church in Concord, Rose served in religious education and conducted the Junior Choir for years. In 2007 she founded a Lyme Support Group which is active to this day. She was trained as a Montessori preschool teacher and started her own preschool, Rosie’s Group, nurturing kindness and creativity in two and three-year olds. She served as President of Concord Greene Condominium Board. As a world traveler, with her parents, husband or children, Rose visited more than thirty countries.

Rose enjoyed her summer cottage on Harvard’s Bare Hill Pond. Her daughter, Patricia Ruze, and son-in-law, John Chapman, are current Harvard Residents. Rose was beloved by the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Community. 

In her final years Rose remained in her home, cared for by family. She will be remembered always as a wonderful mother and a devoted wife. Her philosophy is expressed by the following benediction: 

Go out into the world in peace. Have courage. Hold onto what is good. Return to no person evil for evil. Strengthen the fainthearted. Support the weak. Honor all beings. 

Services will be held on Thursday, December 19, 2024, at 10:00 am at the First Parish Church, 20 Lexington Road, Concord, Massachusetts. 

Arrangements are under the care of Concord Funeral Home, Concord, MA. www.concordfuneral.com