Ruth L. Fearon

BOULDER, COLORADO — Longtime New England resident, Ruth Lauber Fearon, passed away on Oct. 14, 2013, in Boulder, Colo., after a short illness.

Ruth was born April 19, 1922, in Chicago, Ill., the daughter of Ernest Lauber and May (or Mary) Rose Tachovsky Roth Lauber.

Ruth grew up with her sister and two brothers in the Seattle suburb of Lake Forest Park. After graduating from Western Washington College of Education, now Western Washington University, in 1943, she served in the WAVES during World War II,  training fighter pilots.  She met her first husband, Harrison Milas Jones, while in the WAVES, and married after getting her MA in elementary education from Columbia Teachers’ College. She taught elementary school and supervised summer playground activities for a generation of children in Wenham, Mass. Upon her retirement in the early 1980s, she and her second husband, Wendell Fogg Fearon, moved to their beloved vacation home on the shores of Highland Lake in Bridgton, Maine. After Wendell died in 2004, she lived for several hearty years in Maine by herself, and then moved to Golden, Colo. in 2010 to be closer to two of her three daughters.

She will be remembered by her many friends and neighbors for her Christmas sing-a-longs, her across-the-lake swims, her longtime participation in the annual loon count, her volunteer work at the school and the library, her generous gifts of home-baked cookies, and her neighborhood walks with her successive dogs Rolf, Marley, and Shaggy. She is survived by her brother Ernest (Alice) Lauber; sister Shirley (Douglas) Post; daughters Deborah Jones (Michael Davis), Lynele Jones, and Meridee (Ed) Cecil; stepsons Richard Kent Fearon (Deb Halpin) and Bruce Fearon (Camilla Shade); nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren; and five grand or great-grand dogs.

Donations may be made in Ruth’s memory to the Maine Audubon Society (20 Gilsland Farm Rd., Falmouth, ME 04105 or maineaudubon.org), or the Lakes Environmental Association (230 Main St., Bridgton, ME  04009 or mainelakes.org).