Ruth Katherine Schutz passed away peacefully on December 31, 2013 in Rapid City, SD at her home in Meadowbrook Manor. Ruth was born Jan. 3rd 1934 in Dupree, SD; the driest year of the drought. She was the third child born to Charles and Ruth (Stevens) Hersey. She joined Charles Richard (Dick/Chuck) and Lova Jean, and later Charleen Yvonne and Gary Houghton joined the family.She was baptized in 1937 along with sister Charleen at St. Phillips Episcopal Church. She was confirmed April 2nd, 1945 by the Right Rev. Bishop W. Blair Robert’s and married Herbert (Herb) Schutz Sept. 6th, 1953. She started school in 1940 in the welfare offices of the County courthouse because the school building burned in 1939. She started second-grade in the new school building, graduating from high school in 1952. She graduated from Greens Beauty School in 1953 and practiced as a hairdresser for 20 years. Due the disability caused by Multiple Sclerosis, in 1975 with the help of Vocational Rehabilitation, she attended Black Hills State College and graduated in 1979.She joined Women Against Violence and was active for 10 years. She spent the rest of her life trying to understand why in a country that prides itself as a peaceful nation there is so much violence in the United States. We tolerate violence and call it peace making.Starting in her 20s she actively searched for treatments or preferably a cure for alcoholism, parnoid schizophrenia and Multiple Sclerosis and lived long enough to see great progress in the medical treatments for these and other diseases.She has been a member of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church since 1959. She soon joined the Alter Guild and remained active until her disability prevented her from active participation. She was the second of three directorists in the first 50 years of St. Andrews.She was preceded in death by her father and mother, her sisters Lova Kienzle and Charleen Peterson; her husband of 39 years Herbert (Herb) Schutz; a niece June Shaw, and two great nieces Jamie Whiddon and Rebecca Peterson. She is survived by two brothers, Charles (Chuck) Hersey and wife Kay, Seattle WA; Gary Hersey and wife Fay, Belle Fouche SD; nephew Brian Peterson and wife Heidi along with 17 other nieces and nephews, 22 great-nieces and nephews and 13 and counting great-great nieces and nephews.