Ruth Heepke passed away on February 2, 2022, in Fort Morgan after a brief illness. She was born in Chicago on October 27, 1928, to Ebba Katheryn and George Augustus Rohde and two older sisters, Hazel and Phyllis.

Her childhood was spent in the Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago. She played the piano and clarinet and developed a life-long love of music and singing. Her family spent many happy summers in Lake Geneva WI.

She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and National College of Education before taking her first teaching job in Evanston, IL. Carl Henry Heepke, from Edwardsville IL, became her husband in 1949. They drove to Colorado for their honeymoon and continued to live in Colorado for the rest of their lives. Carl worked in the cattle marketing business in Denver and Ruth taught elementary school for two years before giving birth to daughter Carol Heepke and then son Daniel Heepke. They made their home in Denver until 1966. She was active in the American Association of University Women and Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church and was also a substitute teacher.

The family lived in Burlington, CO, from 1966 to 1968 when Ruth went back to teaching first grade. Upon moving to Fort Morgan in 1968, Ruth tutored reading to homebound students before taking up full-time teaching positions at Baker and Green Acres schools. She taught in the Fort Morgan schools for over 30 years. A highlight of her career was a year teaching in Hawaii in 1992.

Ruth was an elder and deacon at the Fort Morgan Presbyterian Church, sang in the choir, and volunteered several summers at Highlands Camp in Allenspark, CO. Her four grandchildren: Emily Reynolds of Buffalo, NY; Max Heepke of Paonia, CO; Ben Reynolds of Denver; and Isabella Heepke-Laws of Fort Morgan all remember camping with her at Highlands, train trips to Chicago and mountain adventures from her time-share condo in Vail. She loved to travel and nurtured a variety of companions on those trips after Carl died in 1986. Her first trip abroad was in 1960, but the 1990s and 2000s found her back in Europe, Sweden, Russia, the Caribbean, Australia, and the South Seas being major destinations. In 2019, Ruth was thrilled at the birth of a great-grandchild, Theodore Laws.

Ruth loved Fort Morgan and the many friends she made here through activities such as PEO, Friday Club, various Bridge clubs, and in recent years playing Mexican Train Dominoes. Ruth was a great booster of tree planting and was very proud of the five huge Blue Spruce trees on her property and the Chestnut tree she and Carl nurtured from a seed they collected on a trip to Massachusetts and planted on Grant Street, which is now 50 years old!

Memorial donations can be made to Highlands Camp and Retreat Center or the Arbor Day Foundation or other tree-planting groups. A memorial service will be held at the Fort Morgan Presbyterian Church on Saturday, March 26 at 2 pm.10/