[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 12, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E8-E9]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING RUTH ARDEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 12, 2010

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Ruth 
Arden, the longtime Executive Director of St. Paul's Community Center. 
Ruth was a passionate advocate for the homeless, the impoverished, and 
for the welfare of the entire Toledo community. She first became 
involved with the center in 1975, when, as the outreach director for 
St. Paul's United Methodist Church, she took on the role of the 
center's first director. Although the job was initially supposed to 
have been temporary, Ruth's innate kindness, combined with the state of 
Ohio's decision to close mental hospitals, meant that her stay at the 
center turned out to be much longer than expected. Those discharged 
from the hospitals ``hovered into the doorways'' at the center, noted 
St. Paul's co-director Marcia Langenderfer, and in the face of such 
pressing need, Ruth simply could not turn people away.
  Over the next 34 years, Ruth transformed St. Paul's from a small 
operation in a church basement into a $1.2 million organization that 
served 100,000 meals annually and supervised 12 transitional apartments 
as well as a 30-bed homeless shelter. ``I think she would have worked 
forever,'' Ms. Langenderfer said, adding that Ruth ``was very strong-
willed and always determined to help this population.''
  Yet Ruth's desire to make this world a better place was not limited 
to those whom she served at St. Paul's. An enthusiastic art lover, she 
participated in the Toledo Museum of Art's Children's Program and, from 
2003 to 2007, served on the board of the Toledo Artists' Club. 
Additionally, Ruth belonged to the Rotary Club of Toledo and was on the 
board of the Coalition for Housing and Homelessness in Ohio from 1983 
to 2003. In 1991, Inc. Magazine named her a finalist for the 
publication's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award.
  I first met Ruth in 1983, and was floored by the way in which this 
remarkable woman seized every opportunity to remind others to be both 
grateful and kind. ``We would go to church,'' her daughter Kimberly 
Arden Chandler recalled, ``and on the way home, she would drive us 
through neighborhoods where people didn't have as much as we did and 
told us how lucky we were.'' It was a valuable lesson for Kimberly and 
her two siblings, and Ruth dedicated her life to teaching it to 
everyone she encountered. Yet she never asked for praise. She helped 
others not for her own self-satisfaction or for recognition from the 
community, but because it was simply the fair and noble thing to do. 
The size and success of St. Paul's Community Center is a shining 
testament to her perseverance, her zeal, and her overwhelming 
compassion. Ruth amazed me as a freshman Congresswoman, and her 
achievements continue to amaze me still. It is only right that she 
should now receive America's wholehearted gratitude and appreciation 
for her outstanding accomplishments and extraordinary life.
  Ruth will be greatly missed in Toledo: she grew up there, raised her 
children there, and spent decades working to improve her hometown. A 
graduate of Waite High School, the University of Toledo, and Baldwin-
Wallace College, Ruth was preceded in death by her son, Kris Kontak. We 
offer our heartfelt condolences to her daughters, Kimberly Arden 
Chandler and Karen Kontak; son, K. Reynold Kontak; seven grandchildren; 
three great-grandchildren; and her dear friend Jim Gottron.
  I know that Ruth's family and friends are deeply comforted by the 
legacy she left behind and the memories they share. She helped so many 
people over the course of her rich and full life, and her efforts are 
ones for which all of us are profoundly grateful. May she be blessed 
with a restful peace, and may we always remember the life and good 
deeds of Ruth Arden.
  Her achievements on behalf of our community benefited others too 
often forgotten in our technologically pigeonholed society. She 
painstakingly bestowed on our community a lasting endowment of vision 
and institutional capacity to serve the homeless and forgotten in the 
heart of Toledo. Indeed, Ruth gave this community heart. What was even 
more amazing was that she was of a position in life where this pursuit 
was not necessary to her existence. Her conscience and spiritual 
mission impacted thousands of people for the better. Her life stands as 
a bright star whose light points the path for those wise enough to 
follow its gleam.

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