Ruth Judith (Crispin) Helmetag

Ruth Judith Helmetag (nee Crispin) passed away on March 13, 2023.

Ruth was born 18 March 1937 in Camden, NJ, the daughter of Casper and Alma (Koelle) Crispin. In 1953 she graduated from Camden High School, where she met her future husband, Charles Helmetag. They enjoyed 63 wonderful years of marriage together.  

Ruth was awarded a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a BS in Education with a major in English. The following year she taught English at Edgewood Regional High School in Tansboro, NJ.  She married in August 1959 and spent the next year in Göttingen, Germany, where Charles was a Fulbright student. While in Göttingen she worked as a typist at Zeiss Winkel Microscopes and also appeared as an extra in the film “Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen”. Ruth supplemented the family income while Charles was in graduate school by typing doctoral dissertations and serving as part-time typist for Dr. John Cobb Cooper, the "Father of Space Law".  

In 1971 Ruth earned an MA in English from Villanova University. Her favorite author was Shakespeare. From 1980 to 2002 she was an administrative assistant and later supervisor of the curriculum department support staff at the American Institute for Certified Property & Casualty Underwriters and earned the CPCU designation from the Insurance Society of America.

Ruth enjoyed travelling and playing the piano, and served as organist in her home church while in high school and college and, later was pianist for several vesper services at White Horse Village. She was a member of Wayne United Methodist Church, where she was a dedicated 3rd & 4th grade Sunday School teacher who made the Bible come alive with the aid of flannel board figures and she and Tilly Tillatson staged an original play based on the life and hymns of Fanny J. Crosby. Most of all, she loved spending time with her husband, children, and grandchildren, and always enjoyed supporting and encouraging all of their musical interests. 

She is survived by husband Charles, son Steve, and his wife Katherine, daughter Diana and her husband Steve, and four grandchildren, Bernard, Peter, Amanda, and Anna Marie.  She was predeceased by her brother Roy C. Crispin.

Funeral Service is Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:00 am, in The Wayne Church, 210 S. Wayne Avenue, Wayne, PA 19087, where friends may call after 10:00 am. Internment Private.

Donations in her honor can be made to the Wills Eye Foundation, to benefit Cornea Services, 840 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107.