Ruth MITCHELL-PITTS

19-06-1951 - 01-02-2009

Ruth
Elizabeth Mitchell-Pitts

Ruth Elizabeth Mitchell-Pitts passed away Sunday morning, 1^st February,after a sixteen-month battle with cancer. She was courageous and uncomplaining throughout her ordeal. As if we did not know already,over these last weeks Ruth continually reminded us of her love for family, her extraordinary spirit and strength of mind.

Ruth was born 19 June 1951 to the Rev Dr Thomas Crichton Mitchell and Elizabeth Smith Mitchell in Paisley, Scotland, the Coats & Clark suburb of Glasgow. Ruth’s family lived in various cities where her father, a minister of the Church of the Nazarene, held pastoral and, later, teaching posts: Bolton, a mill-town near Manchester; Clapham Junction, the rail hub south of London; and Schaffhausen, Germany, a hamlet on the Rhine.
As she completed her
grade-school education at Belleville School in Battersea, Ruth won an
all-London scholarship to Grey Coat Hospital, the girls’ school
in Westminster. While at Grey Coat, among other activities, Ruth
earned a prized lifeguard certificate. As a soprano in her school
choir, she sang numerous times in mass performances in Westminster
Abbey.

Ruth later earned a
B.S. in Education and an M.A. in West European Studies, both at
Indiana University-Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in Political Science at
UNC-Chapel Hill. Her M.A. thesis explored the role of evangelical
chapels on the nationalist movement in Wales; her Ph.D. thesis
defined norms in the British House of Commons, where Ruth had
interned in the summers of 1987 and 1989.

In the early 1980s, as

her family became established in Raleigh, Ruth took part-time
employment teaching first at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women and later in the Wake
County Community College evening GED program at Broughton High
School. At Broughton, she helped students young and old to reach a
long-postponed goal. By the time she completed her Ph.D. in 1992, she
had taught political science at NCSU, East Carolina University,
UNC-Greensboro, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

In 1994, Ruth accepted a position as one-fourth-time Associate

Director of the fledgling Center for European Studies at UNC-Chapel
Hill. Over the next fifteen years, in collaboration with energetic
and innovative colleagues, she helped to build the
Center to one of the top five European Studies Centers in the United
States. She won consecutive and concurrent US Department of Education
and European Union grants to support the Center’s mission of
faculty and student research and promotion of European Studies in
North Carolina and nationwide. She led the creation of two programs
to benefit Europeanist students: the European Studies major for UNC-
Chapel Hill undergraduates and the Trans-Atlantic
Masters (TAM), a masters degree involving coursework in the US and in
Siena, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, Bath or Prague. Named Executive
Director of the Center in 2007, Ruth was devoted to her immediate
colleagues, particularly the Center’s staff. She favored their
professional and personal development even in the crush of workaday
tasks.

In recognition of her
services to European studies, Ruth will receive the European Union
Studies Association’s public service award at the group’s
annual meeting in April 2009.

Ruth’s brother writes that ‘as a young girl, she had an enduring nature

of kindness, quiet charm and thoughtfulness as well as a sharp mind.
There was never a boastfulness, only an appreciation of others she
knew and cared for’. Ruth unfailingly showed respect toward
others, from supermarket baggers to diplomats. Those closest to her
she helped to become their best self or to reach an important goal.
She fiercely defended her personal intellectual autonomy, preferring
a contrarian tack to the comfort of conformity in conversation.

Besides her professional endeavors, Ruth was an olympic-class home decorator andchampion furniture-rearranger.
On a given Saturday, she might re-upholster chairs, paint the dining room or sew new living-room curtains.
She made exquisite bread, fried oysters, corn chowder and red-pepper soup.

She loved detective novels, preferably British ones.
She never tired of the serial ‘As Time Goes By’. She
collected eccentric china and displayed multiple sets simultaneously
in her home. A beach person, she exclaimed at each first glimpse of
the ocean.

Family lore has it that Ruth’s father was tending roses in his garden the morning that baby Ruth arrived.
Ruth also loved gardening but was known for her no-nonsense approach.
She said, ‘We give all our plants a

talking-to when they reach here. It’s do or die. Either they
thrive or we yank them out.’ In the springtime before her final
illness, Ruth totally overhauled her ‘front garden’,
designing new beds, plotting a pea-gravel path, and making friends
with Mexican petunias, an instant hit.

Often overbearing with

her garden plants, Ruth was a loving and devoted wife, mother, and
‘Nana’. Besides her husband Brent, also of Raleigh, Ruth
is survived by two daughters, Francesca Maria (Marlon) Morgan, New
Hill, and Anna Elizabeth (Tim) Heule, Apex; granddaughter Rhiannon E.
Bell, Raleigh; Ruth’s mother (Lesmahagow, Scotland); brothers
James Mitchell (Plymouth, England) and Ian Mitchell (Vauvert,
France); and an aunt, Mabel Silverman (Melbourne), among other
relatives.

The family appreciate

so much the cards, letters, prayers and expressions of goodwill from
Ruth's friends and colleagues all over the world. Ruth heard every
one of the recent messages and either dictated a response or, in her
final days, acknowledged full comprehension. To fellow settlers on
Mayview Road, thank you for the meals and words of encouragement. To
the Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, especially the JOY Class
and Pastor Rick Clayton, our deepest gratitude.

The family are also

grateful for the compassionate care she received at the Rex Cancer
Center and, on various occasions, at Rex Hospital. To everyone who
met Ruth or assisted her or cheered her, we offer heartfelt thanks.
We are indebted to Dr Kenneth Zeitler who kindly and competently
guided us through the medical maze and added many excellent or
‘pretty good’ months to our life together. We never
forgot the handsome young orderly at Rex Hospital who appeared one
day to wheel Ruth to the next stop, to sing beautifully to her, and
to say, ‘I know today’s report will be good’. The
family also thank Hospice of Wake County for the blessing of having
Ruth at home during her final weeks.

Final arrangements

are by the Cremation Society of the Carolinas. Ruth's family are
planning a memorial service for her, to be held in spring. Meanwhile,
notes may be sent via email to pittsbrenta@gmail.com

In lieu of flowers,

Ruth requests that donations be sent in her name to Hospice of Wake
County or to the

Ruth Mitchell-Pitts
START Fellowship (Acct no 10-5555)
Mail to: Daniel Lebold,
Office of Development for Global Education
FedEx Global Education
Center
CB# 5145, 301 Pittsboro Street
Chapel Hill, NC
27599-5145

The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be
gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
and give thee peace. (Numbers 6)

Dear Ruth, we loved you
so.