Ed & Ruth Schwaegerle
After the Schwaegerles moved to Kendal at Oberlin, Ruth continued her “tooth brush” watercolor paintings, which she remembers developing in a high school art class. She enjoys painting flowers, several of them gracing our walls here at Kendal. She sold her greeting cards at our Cardinal Shop.
Ruth enjoys needlepoint and helps others with their projects. Whenever an unfinished piece is donated to the RAFF Shop, Ruth grabs it up and loves finishing the piece. There might be a new addition available at the Summer Auction.
Blueberry buckle and sticky buns were a homemade weekend breakfast treat. This tradition continued here at Kendal with breakfast at their cottage for Kendal Newcomers in conjunction with the Oberlin Heritage Center, where Ruth served both as a docent and on the Heritage Center Board.
Recently Ed has become adept at baking coffee cakes. In the new Stephens Care Center Country Kitchen they teamed up to bake one that they shared with friends. Ruth is hoping to make delicious butter cookies from an old family recipe.
When the Schwaegerles moved to Kendal at Oberlin in 1993, Ed almost immediately became a volunteer at the Oberlin College archives. He loved researching requests for genealogical information about early Oberlin College students and families. Ed has given several talks here at Kendal based on his family history. He has published books on both the paternal and maternal sides of his family.
Ed loves to play bridge and continues playing in a group here at Kendal that will celebrate its 20th anniversary at a Holiday party this December. He is their chief record keeper, a chore that he loves.
Ed thinks of himself as sort of a loner, but he recently delighted us all with a Sir Harry Lauder-like rendition of “Breakfast in Bed on Sunday Morrrrnin” at the annual Robert Burns dinner in January. He says his repertory is limited to two songs he learned 75 years ago at his father’s knee. The other is “Elsie Schultz-en-Heim.” Perhaps we can get him to perform as part of our anniversary this year!
Ruth says: “As one ages, days become more precious and we hope to make use of every hour. How lucky we are to live at Kendal.”
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