Ruth Arp Pollock

Ruth, 92, was born January 19, 1930, in Eldridge, IA, to Harold & Mildred (Zimmerman) Wiggers.  She died peacefully in her home, with family members present.

Ruth the only daughter, with 4 brothers, grew up on a farm in Eldridge, during the Depression.  This life experience instilled a strong work ethic, intrinsic family values and a lot of grit and perseverance.  The bond Ruth and her brothers demonstrated was a beautiful example of family, trust and friendship.  Her mother engrained a very strong intellectual spirit and thirst for knowledge, all of the siblings went on to be college educated, world travelers and lifelong learners.  Those same values were passed on to the next generations also.

Chambers Funeral Home, Eldridge, is assisting family with arrangements.

Ruth was previously married to Aaron Arp, and together raised 3 children.  She worked on the farm, milking cows along with driving school bus, making wedding cakes, and was also quite a seamstress.

At age 45, she started a new journey and enrolled at Marycrest College, Davenport.  Her brothers were a huge inspiration and help in going back to school, they graciously took turns tutoring.  Ruth completed her BSN in Nursing, started working at Trinity Hospital and also attended classes at Northern Illinois (Dekalb) to get her Master’s in Oncology.  At some point, she was asked if she was interested in “teaching”, and made a slight career shift to become an instructor at Trinity College of Nursing.  Her greatest joy was teaching clinical.  Even after retirement, she continued teaching part-time at both Trinity and Blackhawk College until age 79-1/2.  She has many fond memories of students, and the family has enjoyed all the great memories that her students and co-workers have of Ruth.  We could never go to a medical appointment without having a student or staff that “knew” her.

In Nov-1986, she married Kyle Pollock and his 3 children.  In 1994 they built a home on the Wiggers homestead.  They hosted many family reunions there, with as many as 60 people actually staying for a week at their home.  Kyle passed away in 2015, but she was able to maintain her independence and live there the rest of her life.  She even held the “fast mowing” record.  At age 88, she did full-time daycare for her youngest gr-grandchild, Johnnie, for 2 years – keeping them both alive and well.  Ruth was always looking forward at “life”, and not looking backward.

By age 92, she had a wonderful life and was truly blessed to be able to stay at home with her beautiful view, and worry about the geese on the pond, feeding the fish, and those darn squirrels and raccoons.  She started the day, well before 6am, with her paper and cup of coffee.  Thanks to Dan, the paper was there every morning, and she provided the coffee. Ruth was tech savvy enough to enjoy daily text messages, pictures and videos from her two sons and grandchildren. She was surrounded by almost a wallpaper of family pictures.

Please come join her family on Sat, October 15th for a celebration of her life, and all the memories she leaves us.  We’ll start at 1pm and continue into the evening with a bonfire, bring your lawn chairs to sit, relax, laugh, reminisce and enjoy all the crazy memories.

Survivors include her brothers, Ralph (Virginia) Wiggers (Collierville,TN), Ken Wiggers (Kelley, IA), Keith (Jan) Wiggers (Burlington, WA); children, Dennis (Judy) Arp, Flagstaff AZ, Gary (Laura) Arp, Andover, MN, Becky (Dan) Esbaum, Eldridge, IA; grand & great-grandchildren, Leah Arp-Romero (Phoenix, AZ) (Vanessa & Solana), Adam (Monique) Arp, Flagstaff, AZ (Porter & Weston), Amber (Art) (Dallas, GA) (Noah, Nolan, Lucille), Paula (Rene) delFabro (Davenport, IA) (Johnnie), Tammy Woodcock (Minneapolis, MN), Vittoria Johnson (Phoenix, AZ), Elizabeth (Scott) Morschhauser (Davenport, IA), Mike Pollock, Colorado, Todd Pollock / Corinna Hammersley, Erie, CO (Isabelle & Oliver), Kristen (Mark) Wittman, Chicago, IL (Campbell & Bennett).  Plus, a multitude of nieces & nephews

Preceded in death by her husband, Kyle Pollock and her eldest brother and sister-in-law Harold & Doreen Wiggers (Bellevue, WA).

Memorials can be made to Trinity College of Nursing, Rock Island, IL.  On-line condolences can be made at www.McGinnis-Chambers.com