John S. Ruch
John S. Ruch of Zelienople died Nov. 4 at UPMC Passavant Hospital in McCandless Township.
While his working career was spent in public relations and journalism, his avocation for four decades was volunteering with local and statewide historic preservation and landmarks organizations.
He retired from PPG Industries in 2001 as manager of corporate public information with responsibility for corporate news, media relations and crisis response. After joining PPG's Pittsburgh headquarters in 1968, he held varied posts, established a regional public relations office in New York City in 1976 and returned to Pittsburgh in 1982.
He was president of Historic Harmony (HH) that owns the nine-property Harmony Museum and interprets the story of Harmony, settled in 1804 by the communal Harmony Society of German Separatists and resettled in 1814 by Mennonites. He and others had worked for the past four years to have the 1825 Harmony Mennonite Meetinghouse added to the National Register of Historic Places. He lived to see that effort achieved in October.
John had served as HH president since 1995 and also held that office from 1984 to 1990. During that time, HH purchased its principal museum building and upgraded its facilities, completed a community-wide historic resources inventory and supported Harmony Borough's creation of a local landmark district. HH increased cooperative efforts with Old Economy Village in Ambridge and Historic New Harmony in southwest Indiana, both located in towns founded by the Harmonists. John and his family made several trips to the Harmonists' home region in southwest Germany, meeting historians, archivists and town officials who became friends.
He was honored to receive the Zelienople-Harmony Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award and the Zelienople Historical Society Angel Award.
He was a founder and former board member of the Western Pennsylvania Museum Council and of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau and a member and former vice president of Friends of Old Economy Village. He was a member of Washington's Trail 1753, Zelienople Historical Society, Butler County Historical Society, Blooming Grove (Pa.) Historical Society, Zoar (Ohio) Community Association, the Overseas Press Club and two Alfa Romeo clubs.
John was a longtime trustee of the Friends Meetinghouse and Cemetery Association of Randolph Township, N.J., a group preserving a 1758 Quaker house of worship, and a member of the Dover-Randolph Friends Meeting that occupies the building. While living in Randolph, from 1976 to 1982, he served as clerk of Friends Meeting, chaired the township landmarks committee and was vice chair of its zoning appeals board, helped form a statewide association of landmarks commissioners, and was vice president of the local historical society.
Born in Montgomery County to Philadelphia natives, Harold and Anna Kerr Ruch, he grew up in a century-old house in Dresher, Pa., and spent his early years doing farm chores, working on 4-H projects and developing a love for animals, history and fast cars that continued throughout his life. He enjoyed a free-range childhood with his buddies, tinkering with old cars, roaming the woods and exploring junkyards. Trouble sometimes ensued, but he always pointed out that police paid only one visit to his home. Around that time his parents enrolled him at William Penn Charter School in nearby Philadelphia, where he endured five years before transferring to Temple University High School. He attended Washington University in St. Louis and served in the U.S. Air National Guard.
He worked for United Press International as a reporter in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus where he and UPI photographers, Jim Dever and Ron Kuntz, scored an exclusive following Dr. Sam Sheppard's release from prison.
John returned to the Cleveland bureau as manager, then moved on to the public relations staff of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron in 1965. He enjoyed covering car races around the country as part of his jobs at Goodyear and PPG. His work required frequent domestic and foreign trips, but his preferred travel was weekend camping with his sons, longer camping trips and Jersey shore vacations with family and friends, and in recent years, adventures in Europe with his wife, Shelby. They met in 1963 and worked together as UPI staff reporters in Columbus. Their paths crossed a few years later and they married in 1966.
He is survived by Shelby and their sons, John B. Ruch and Christopher Ruch (Michelle Myers); and his sister, Barbara Ruch, and her husband, Hugh Patrick.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his in-laws, John and Virginia Miller.
RUCH — Services for John S. Ruch, who died Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, will be private.If desired, tax-deductible donations can be made to Historic Harmony Inc., P.O. Box 524, Harmony, PA 16037.Please leave condolences at www.schellhaasfh.com
