In Memoriam | Ruth McBride 1948 – 2025

||| FROM MATT CORDDRY |||

Ruth McBride

Ruth was born in St Louis, Missouri on June 22nd 1948, the first child of Melanie Levy Malewitz, an artist and stay at home mom, and Edward C. Malewitz, a remarkably intelligent and compassionate father and physician. One year later, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and grew to include Ruth’s brother Ed and her sister Anne.

As a child, Ruth’s play was famously precise; on the beach on Galveston Island, her sandcastles were masterpieces, and she always found the perfect shells. She was also a talented seamstress, and happily spent hours sewing doll clothes with her sister Anne, guided by their paternal grandmother. Lacking a knitting instructor within the family, Ruth went to a local yarn store and took lessons. Anne remembers her coming home in tears, frustrated because her teacher made her rip out her overly-tight stitches.

In her early teens she discovered tennis and sailing, and excelled at both. She loved being captain. She remained an excellent tennis player for the rest of her life. In high school, she participated in the city-wide science fair and won with an exhibit explaining set theory. Ruth had a deep love for math and a fascination with numbers, which she carried throughout her life, believing they might hold the answers to many questions. She excelled academically and graduated from Bellaire Senior High with honors, was a National Merit Award winner, and straight “A” student. Her intellect was a great joy to her parents and they supported her continued education. With her love of Texas perhaps waning, she ventured far from home to attend Brown University in 1966.

Ruth studied at Brown during the turbulent late 1960s, where she served as President of the student body of Pembroke College and marched against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. Academically, she joined a new wave of young computer-oriented mathematicians, and graduated in 1970 with a degree in Applied Mathematics and invitations from Harvard and UCLA to continue her studies. Instead, she married classmate Tom Corddry and began her life’s work in biostatistics on Dr. Richard Kronmal’s research team at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her work contributed to an improved understanding of many cardiovascular health issues and the development of lifesaving new protocols. Ruth and Tom were followed to Seattle by a cluster of friends from Brown, and Ruth put down deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. In 1976, Ruth and Tom welcomed bicentennial baby Matthew into the world, a life-changing event for all three of them. Ruth and Tom later divorced (in 1979) but remained co-parents and friends.

Ruth’s work with her UW-based team grew into a deeply engaging career with a company that would eventually become Axio Research. Thanks to her supportive nature, she was a respected leader throughout her working years, and her team reports her encouragement and care influences their work to this day.

Ruth married James McBride, a Seattle-based potter and industrial designer, in August of 1981. Their newly-blended family brought together Matthew with James’ sons Nathan and Kendall. Understanding that multi-household parenting fosters many obstacles, Ruth and her co-parenting team established a rotation that allowed all three boys to be together with them in their Wallingford home. This feat enabled the boys to grow up together as siblings, and they remain close today.

Ruth’s lifelong love of gardening blossomed during this period and she was devoted to a pea patch garden plot around the corner, where she honed her vegetable gardening skills. Over the years, her garden expanded into a powerhouse that kept the family—and their many friends—in canned goods all winter long, and included a generous orchard which remains the source of far too many pears each year.

In 1992, Ruth and James began to design and build a home on Orcas Island, the beloved scene of many family vacations, notably the famous honeymoon trip that included all three boys, Ruth’s mother Melanie, and a spare friend for good measure! Their home near Olga became a full-time residence for Ruth and James over the next decade, and in typical fashion, Ruth formed close bonds with her new friends on the island, including Entrance Mountain-area neighbors, colleagues at the Orcas Library, and fellow tennis players.

Ruth expanded her lifelong interest in textile arts during this time, developing her skills as a weaver and knitter whose handmade gifts were the centerpiece of many holiday gift exchanges. Her sweaters, against all expectations that grandma-made sweaters will be lumpy and scratchy, are beloved core elements of the grandkids’ daily wear.

Caring for James in his later years, before he passed in 2021, became a demanding challenge that she met with deep love, determination and patience.

Ruth is remembered with love by her many friends and colleagues in the Northwest and across the country, her family in Texas, Utah and beyond, and her community on Orcas Island.  She is survived by her siblings Anne and Ed, by her sons Matthew, Kendall and Nathan, all of their spouses and eight grand-children. She loved them all unconditionally.

A commemorative garden will soon be planted at The Orcas Island Public Library, where Ruth volunteered every week. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the library in Ruth’s name.