Obituary of Mariam Ruckman Nielsen

Mariam Anne Ruckman Nielsen was born on November 9, 1926 in the farming town of Reubens, Idaho on the Camas Prairie. She was the youngest daughter of Valentine Henry "Val" Ruckman and Helen Ruckman. Her older sisters were Virginia and Katharyn. Mariam had the typical life of someone growing up in rural Idaho until the Great Depression hit and separated the family after they lost their farm. For a time she lived with her maternal grandparents. It was perhaps then that Mariam began to prefer being called Anne. Her Grandmother Curless, renowned for a voice so loud she was recruited to heckle rivals at basketball games, would call out "Mariam" with such force that the whole prairie could hear. Also at this time her mother started teaching in various schools in the region and the daughters would live with her when possible. Her father took what employment he could find, at one point working river barges out of Lewiston. Eventually economic conditions improved and the family moved to Moscow, Idaho. There, Anne's mother taught high school English and her father went into the seed and feed business eventually opening his own store on the outskirts of town. She graduated from Moscow High School in 1944. World War II was a very formative time for Anne. There were wartime hardships, stresses and losses but it was also the time of Big Band music and lots of young sailors came to the University of Idaho for radio operator training. Anne, as evidenced by her photo album of the time, developed an active and happy social life as well as a mean jitterbug. After high school Anne enrolled in the University of Idaho where she became an active member of the Tri Delta sorority, earning a Bachelor's degree in biology in 1949. It was during this time she met her future husband, Merrill Nielsen. They reportedly met in class where Merrill discovered, to his benefit, that she took excellent notes and was a very capable lab partner. Apart from his good looks and intelligence, Anne was perhaps attracted to Merrill's bon vivant approach to life. His high spirits were on full display one night when she discovered him swinging from a tree near his fraternity. She was always skeptical about his claim the antic was fueled only by youthful exuberance. In 1947 Anne and Merrill married in Moscow. After moving to Los Angeles for a brief time, where Merrill discovered he wasn't cut out for dental school and Anne worked at the Woolworth,s in Westwood (where she rang up a sale for actor Pat O'Brien) the couple returned to Moscow. Merrill began work on his Masters degree in Geology. Their first child, Katharyn "Katie", was born in 1949. When Merrill finished graduate school, Anne began the itinerant life of a young geologist's wife. Their second child, Max, was born in Idaho Falls in 1952, Grand Junction saw the appearance of daughter Ruth Anne in 1954 and finally son Paul showed up in Tulsa in 1961. In Tulsa, Anne started her own career teaching biology at Nimitz Junior High School where she also mentored the science club. During summers she enrolled at the University of Montana where she earned a Master's degree in biological sciences. In 1970 the family moved to Golden, Colorado and Anne began teaching biology and running the gifted and talented program at Drake Junior High. Drake was on a yearlong program that meant extended winter breaks. During these breaks Anne organized a cross-country skiing club for students and developed a love for the sport. She also chaperoned student groups on trips to the then Soviet Union and somehow found time to earn her second masters degree in education from the University of Denver. After Drake, Anne taught at Columbine High, well before it entered into the national consciousness. In 1980 Anne and Merrill moved to Meridian, Idaho where she ran the gifted program at West and North junior highs in Nampa until her retirement in 1991. After retirement she and Merrill traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and Latin America. An avid gardener her whole life, Anne was famous for her raspberries, strawberries and tested her green thumb against every kind of vegetable she could order from her seed catalogues. She was always ready with a gift of produce or homemade preserves. The botanist in her also came out during family vacations when she would point out various plants and flowers not just by their common name but Latin genus and species. An active book club participant, Anne was a voracious reader and worked to pass along that love of reading to her children and grandchildren. At her very heart Anne was a teacher. She strove to instill in her family, students and friends the same curiosity about, love and understanding of the world, natural and man-made, that she had. Mother, grandmother, teacher, mentor, provider, friend and maker of an awesome huckleberry pie, Anne will be sorely missed. Anne is survived by her daughter, Katie of Phoenix, AZ; son, Max of Seattle, WA; daughter, Ruth Anne of Kuna, ID; son, Paul of Los Angeles CA; 18 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at 2:00 pm, Saturday, January 4, 2014 at Summers Funeral Homes, Ustick Chapel, 3629 E Ustick Rd, Meridian, Idaho. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family on Anne's memorial webpage at www.summersfuneral.com.