Ruth Kelley Obituary

Ruth A. Kelley
Ruth Ann Kelley died at home on Nov. 29. She was 92. She was born in New Canaan, the daughter of John Kelley and Ruth Treadwell Kelley, and descended from a large family that settled on Carter Street in New Canaan in the early 1800s. She died after a battle with cancer in the house where she was born and lived independently there until her last several days under hospice care.
Ruth attended the Little Red Schoolhouse, New Canaan High School and the University of North Carolina. She had a long career in New York in marketing at Northwestern Mutual and Aetna Insurance companies and achieved the professional designations of Chartered Life Underwriter and also Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter. She was a true student of the business and taught at one time as an adjunct at the College of Insurance.
Following her retirement, she continued to be involved in business as a volunteer. For more than 20 years, she served as the supervisor of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program at the New Canaan Library, overseeing the transition from paper tax forms to electronic platforms. She also participated actively in the Service Corps of Retired Executives and served at one time as the Chair of the Fairfield County SCORE Chapter. Ruth kept pace with social media and brought a lifetime of business exposure to small business client planning at SCORE. She remained on the Education committee until the time of her death.
Ruth was well-read and well-traveled with a special interest in the arts and design; she was a marathon visitor to museums throughout her worldwide travels. Still on her very full bookshelves is an old copy of Europe on $5 a Day. She learned to ski on Lone Tree Hill in New Canaan, long before houses were built there, and later enjoyed Nordic skiing in the area. She was a college badminton champion and continued to enjoy tournament badminton in her earlier years. She was an accomplished cook and entertained often for family and friends. Ruth was a life-long student, and many considered her a true renaissance woman.
She had no children of her own and became a fond aunt and mentor to her brother's children. She is survived by her brother, John Marshall Kelley (Jack) formerly of Darien and now of Goshen, Conn., and his children: Larry Kelley, of Norwich, Conn., Joanne Kelley of Evergreen, Colo., Tom Kelley of Upper Nyack, N.Y., and Tim Kelley of Boise, Idaho, as well as several grandnieces and grandnephews. She will be remembered well as "Aunt Ruth" by the extended family and circle of friends.
A memorial service will be held when family and friends can gather at a later time. A contribution in her memory now to Staying Put in New Canaan, P.O. Box 484, New Canaan, CT 06840, would be welcomed.