Ruth Marie Huber Dobbins was born May 6, 1954 (on her mother’s birthday) to Laurence William Huber and Mary Ella Young at the Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson, Iowa. Ruth was raised on a farm west of Rippey, Iowa. She died at De Greef Hospice House (at St. Anthony’s Medical Center) December 11, 2016 at 11:46 pm.

Ruth attended the Rippey Consolidated School and East Greene Community Schools and graduated May 1972. In May 1976, Ruth graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa majoring in Elementary Education and Remedial Reading. Ruth’s 1976 UNI graduation was the year of our nation’s bicentennial and the first graduation to be held in the UNIDome.

Ruth gave her life to Jesus her sophomore year of high school at a Campus Crusade for Christ presentation of the gospel in the Methodist Church basement at Jefferson, Iowa. She made a public profession of her faith in Jesus as her Savior following the showing of the Billy Graham movie, “The Restless Ones,” also in Jefferson. Ruth was active in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in her college years and was elected to serve on the leadership committee during her junior year at UNI.

Ruth met and married Jim Dobbins in Des Moines, Iowa in 1980. Throughout her life Ruth taught in several Christian schools and pre-schools. Ruth loved developing curriculum with original songs and creative visual aids to enhance children’s learning. Her greatest joy was being a parent volunteer for her daughter Carole’s class. Carole is Jim and Ruth’s only child.

Ruth suffered symptoms of CREST scleroderma since age 11. She wasn’t diagnosed until college. Her health declined from complications of hip fracture surgery causing aspiration pneumonia and later pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease.

Ruth is preceded in death by her father and mother Laurence and Mary Ella Huber. Ruth is survived in death by her brother Robert Huber (Cedar Falls, Iowa), her husband Jim Dobbins and daughter Carole Dobbins both of St. Louis, Missouri.

Ruth requests monetary gifts go to Caring Voice Coalition, assisting patients with rare orphan diseases with monetary assistance for life sustaining drugs, Mother Bear Project who helped her heart knitting bears for African children, or Scleroderma Research Foundation.

Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held at the chapel of St. Louis Cremation (2135 Chouteau Ave., St. Louis MO 63103) on Saturday, December 17th from 3-5:00 pm.