CANAAN — Although she lived to be 102, Ruth Tucker never failed to remember a former student — an indication of her dedication as a teacher.
“No matter where I went, someone would come up to her, and they’d say, ‘Mrs. Tucker,’ and she’d remember their name and different things about them,” said Ruth Margaret Pinkham, Tucker’s niece.
Those students and many others also remembered her. On Tucker’s 100th birthday, she received more than 100 birthday cards from people in Canaan, where she spent much of her working life, Pinkham said.
After Tucker’s death on July 19 in Rye, N.H., the large number of attendees at her funeral service at Canaan Methodist Church in late July reflected a similar sentiment.
“I think she would be impressed by who came to her service,” Pinkham said, noting that neighbors spoke, as did a younger teacher who considered Tucker a mentor.
Born Dec. 9, 1922, in Northampton, Mass., to Edward and Mabel (Tappan) Callanan, Tucker always loved learning, especially literature in high school. She graduated from Braintree (Mass.) High in 1941.
Her daughter Martha Menton believes Tucker entered Boston University intending to teach — a way to combine her interests in literature and the English language.
So it was not surprising that Tucker pursued a career teaching English after graduating from college in 1945, even though women faced significant professional barriers at the time.
Beginning in 1883, Massachusetts enforced a marriage ban for teachers: married women were required to resign from jobs as teachers (and often from clerical, nursing, or flight attendant positions). Occasionally, they could return as part-time substitutes for less than one-third of their prior salary. The state legislature did not eliminate the ban until 1953.
As a result, the marriage ban helped prompt Tucker’s move from North Andover, Mass., to New Hampshire so she wouldn’t have to give up teaching when she married.
After leaving Massachusetts, Tucker taught for a year at what was then West Lebanon High School. She married Harry Tucker, a World War II veteran and postal worker, in 1949. They moved to Canaan, where Tucker spent the remainder of her teaching career, Menton said.
From 1957 to 1962, she taught at Canaan High School and when Canaan students moved into the newly-built Mascoma Valley Regional High School the following year, she did as well. Tucker taught at Mascoma for 20 years before her retirement. At Mascoma, she taught English, in addition to serving Mascoma students as yearbook advisor, National Honor Society advisor and class advisor. She was also an officer of the Mascoma Education Association.
Her daughter, Martha, was one of her students in a Shakespeare class. She recalls that her mother made her memorize a passage from Shakespeare and recite it in front of the class.
“I think she wanted to make sure that I really excelled and worked very hard so no one could say that I got a good grade because she was my mom,” Martha Menton said.
Menton grew up alongside a sister, Patricia, who died in 2014.
Tucker “pushed education,” continuing to teach her daughters outside the home as well — for example, by taking them to homes of past presidents, Menton said.
She wanted not only her daughters, but all of her students, to succeed and pursue an education.
“She was interested in all her students and not just the ones who were particularly hardworking or talented,” said Menton. “She was accepting and kind to people. She was a really good person.”
Jan Kulig, a friend of Patricia’s, similarly recalls Tucker’s influence. “Two of my cousins had her as (a teacher) when she taught at Canaan High School, and both of them felt that it was only with her encouragement that they attended college,” she said.
One of Kulig’s cousins went to what is now Plymouth State University and became a teacher. The other, who grew up on a farm in West Canaan, ended up going to school in Manchester, which felt like a big city to a young person from a rural part of the state, Kulig said.
Though Tucker’s husband and one of her daughters predeceased her, Tucker’s positivity helped her through, Menton said.
She was “always, upbeat, positive … non-judgemental” to everyone she met, Menton said. “You would have looked at her and thought, ‘She’s so vibrant. She’s so positive.’ ”
Pinkham remembers her aunt as very organized and structured, and “constantly” rereading books.
Along with her career in education, Tucker also enjoyed gardening, bus travel and Scrabble. She was an active member in the Methodist Church, Mascoma Senior Center, and the Thomas Chittenden Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
“She was very proud of her family genealogy and that my grandmother’s people came over in 1636 and landed in Newburyport, Massachusetts,” said Pinkham.
In December 2020, Tucker moved in with Menton in Stratham, N.H. Two years later, Tucker moved into an assisted living facility in Rye.
Tucker’s former house, located on Route 4, is now a bookstore, School Street Books & Records — fitting given her love for reading, Menton said.
“I thought that was the most appropriate thing ever,” she said.