Ruth Helen Goldberg Tamkin
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Ruth Helen Goldberg Tamkin of Jamaica Plain, formerly of Augusta, GA, passed away September 21, 2020. Ruth was born in Somerville where she went to Somerville High School and entered just the second class that agreed to admit women at Northeastern University in 1944 to study math and physics, where she graduated in 3 years while working evenings at the Goldberg family store in Somerville. She later would get her Masters at Rhode Island College. She married her husband, Arthur Tamkin in Brookline while he was a student at Harvard University.
Soon after they moved to Durham NC where she worked at Duke Hospital while Arthur was pursuing advanced studies. His career lead them to live in a number of places including Cranston, RI for 20 years where they raised their children. She was active in the League of Women Voters and the Democratic Party in Cranston and traveled to conventions and meetings. They eventually settled in Augusta, GA where they lived for many years and she taught
math at Augusta Prep. When they retired they traveled many places and were very active in their Adas Yeshurun Synagogue and many different cultural activities. While retired Ruth was a docent at the National Science Center's Fort Discovery, and also prepared taxes for Rhodes Murphy. Ruth did not get to have a bas mitzvah in 1939 when it was almost unheard of in the US for young women, but later she studied the Torah and in Augusta at 80 years old she was bas mitzvahed in an Orthodox synagogue. After Arthur passed, in 2008 Ruth moved to Jamaica Plain, MA to live with her daughter Andrea and son-in-law Jim Bouchard, where Ruth was active in the local bridge club and water aerobics. She had many friends in her new late in life community as she had the most pleasant disposition and a beautiful smile that she shared with everyone she met. She loved helping her grandson with his math homework and was an avid reader of the daily newspaper which she read thoroughly front to back.
She was a loving mother and grandmother and is survived by her sister Shirley Greene, her children, Laura, Andrea, Jill and Roi Tamkin, grandchildren Ida and Saul Foster, Gray and Maurice Bouchard, and great-grandchild Marina Bouchard. Her perseverance and engagement in life was a great example for all who were close to her.
Services are private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Rogerson House in Jamaica Plain. 434 Jamaica Way, Boston, MA 02130, www.rogersonhouse.org.