Joseph "Joe" Ruby, age 93 of Pigeon passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2012, surrounded by his loving family at the Mid-Michigan Medical Center in Midland.
Joe was born in Thurman, Colorado on September 18, 1918 to the late Aaron and Catherine (Swartzentruber) Ruby. On February 20, 1944 he and Helen M. Hoffman were united in marriage in Thurman.
Throughout his life time, Joe always had a love for horses. His grand kids loved to hear the story about how he and his brother Walt, while only in their teens took over 300 horses, on horseback, through the Rocky Mountains to the winter fields below. For most of his life Joe always had a horse or two in the barn out back. So in the eyes of the kids, and big kids too, Joe was a "Real Cowboy".
In 1945 Joe went into the CPS program (Civilian Public Service) in California and Pennsylvania, fighting forest fires and working in a mental hospital for two years. In 1950 he and his wife moved to Michigan. They soon settled into their home, in which he and his dad built in Berne and lived there the rest of his life. Joe worked a few years for a couple of service businesses and in 1964 he was the co-founder of J & B Plumbing and Heating. In 1972 he sold his share of the business and went to work for Scheurer Hospital overseeing the Maintenance Department. After many years of service, he retired in 1985.
Joe took pride in his 1950 8-N Ford tractor, which is dad bought new, and plowed gardens every fall and made new lawns in the spring for many for his friends in the Pigeon area. He also enjoyed driving the big tractors and looked forward to the hay or chop corn season when he knew his best friend Harry Swartzendruber would call looking for a little help, but only after coffee in Bay Port. Joe also thought it was important that his grandkids know how to drive a straight stick. So given an opportunity, he would let them drive his pickup a few miles down the road.
Joe was a faithful member of the Michigan Ave Mennonite Church, serving in his younger years as a Church Trustee. Being a man of few words, he expressed his faith by example, to those who knew him, by never missing Sunday Morning Services, Sunday School or other special events of the church.
In addition to his wife Helen, to whom he had been married nearly 68 years, Joe is survived by his two daughters and son-in-laws, Diane and Joe Maust and Delores "Dee" and Denny Esch, all of Pigeon. Six grandchildren, J. Scott Maust, Renee (John) Read, Tiffany (Chris) Jackson, D. Chad (Sharon) Esch, Jeremy (Cindy) Esch, and Matthew (Lisa) Esch, eight great grandchildren, Morgan, Nicholas, Nolan, Hannah, Conner, Carter, Justin and Lauren, a sister Edith (Leon) Swartzendruber of Pigeon and a sister-in-law, Dorothy Ruby of Albany, Oregon. He was preceded in death by his siblings, Emma Riemenschneider, Walt Ruby and Marie Ruby.
The Celebration of His Life will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. Monday, January 16, 2012 at the Michigan Ave Mennonite Church, with Pastor Scot Wilson officiating; Burial will be in the church cemetery. Memorials may be made to the church or Wings of Mercy-East Michigan.
VISITATION AT MEYERSIECK-BUSSEMA FUNERAL HOME, PIGEON:
Sunday, January 15 2:00 - 8:00 p.m.
AND AT MICHIGAN AVENUE MENNONITE CHURCH, PIGEON:
Monday, January 16 10:00 a.m. until the service at 11:00 a.m.
