By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MILFORD - Ruthann Asbury West raised a family, then she set out to improve the lives of others.

A registered nurse and social worker, she counseled families and adolescents in Brown and Clermont counties - and she tended to the medical needs of people in Central and South America.

"Ruthann was above all else the image of kindliness and clear thinking," said her friend Virginia Jergens of Hyde Park. "She raised her children, went back to school to finish her undergraduate work - and went on to receive her master's in social work. She never quit learning."

Mrs. West died March 16 at her Milford home after a brief illness. She was 82.

"Mrs. West was always kind and optimistic," said Cheri Creedon, a family friend. "Even when her daughter, Lucy, and I did things for which other parents would have grounded us, she just talked to us in the sweetest kind of words I can remember. I think she gave me my optimistic attitude in life."

Born in Bruceville, Ind., Mrs. West earned a nursing diploma from the University of Michigan School of Nursing in 1943.

"Like her mother, she became a Sweet Adeline, singing with the Seven Hills Chapter in Cincinnati and competing to win several international medals," Jergens said.

Mrs. West also completed a bachelor's degree through the Union Institute's University Without Walls program and a master's degree in social work from Northern Kentucky University.

During her career, she took several working vacations to Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, where she provided medical care to local people. She was doing family therapy in Batavia when she retired in 1985.

Mrs. West was a member of the Civic Garden Center and the Hyde Park Garden Club. She loved to search for spring wildflowers in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky with members of the Cincinnati Nature Center. She also took part in many bird-watching expeditions, including in the Galapagos Islands, where she viewed blue-footed boobies.

She volunteered at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the League of Women Voters, and she was a supporter of Greenpeace International, the National Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. She was a member of Hyde Park Community Methodist Church and a charter member of the Association for Rational Thought, a Cincinnati skeptics group.

She was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Molly Bradford West.

Survivors include: two sons, Dr. Michael West of Topeka, Ind., and John West of Atlanta; a daughter, Lucy Lewis of Milford; her ex-husband, Dr. Clark D. West of Harrison; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Visitation is 1-3 p.m. Saturday at Elden A. Good Funeral Home, 2620 Erie Ave. in Hyde Park, followed by a memorial service. Inurnment will be in Topeka, Ind.

Memorials: Cincinnati Nature Center, 4949 Tealtown Road, Milford, OH 45150; the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area, 103 William Howard Taft Road, Cincinnati, OH 45219; or the Autism Society of Greater Cincinnati, P.O. Box 43027, Cincinnati, OH 45243-0027.

---

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com