Ruth Mitchell Prosser Beers

Ruth Prosser Beers, a longtime resident of Mercer Island, died on May 22, 2011 in Burlington, Vermont at the age of 97. Ruth had lived the last four years of her life in Burlington near her daughter Gwenyth Hobbs’s family, having lived in West Hartford, Connecticut from 1966 to 2008. She and her husband Daniel Prosser had bought a house on East Mercer Way in 1939, to which they returned in 1945 after World War II. There they raised a family of two daughters, Marylyn and Gwenyth. Ruth taught kindergarten and primary grades in the Mercer Island School District during the 1950s and 60s. During this time, she served on the school district’s Board of Education, and was active in the establishment of the Mercer Island Recreation Council. Ruth and her husband Dan were charter members of the Mercer Island Presbyterian Church, having hosted the first

organizational meeting of interested future members at their home in August of 1952. Ruth continued teaching in the West Hartford School District while simultaneously attending the University of Hartford where she received her Masters Degree in Education. In 1989, Ruth married her second husband, Robert I. Beers in West Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Beers died in 2003. Ruth leaves daughter Marylyn (Prosser) Pauley and her husband Dr. Stephen Pauley, daughter Gwenyth (Prosser) Hobbs and her husband Dr. David Hobbs, 7 grown grandchildren and spouses, as well as nine great-grandchildren. A memorial interment will take place at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 2, at 3:30PM in the church’s Remembrance Garden. Family and friends are invited to attend.

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