Ruby remembered as friend, civic leader

MOSES LAKE - Tell stories about Moses Lake back in the day, and sooner or later the story likely will include Robert Ruby.

Whether it's practicing medicine, civic involvement, town history, Native American culture - name it, and Robert Ruby was part of it. Ruby, who had lived in Moses Lake for 58 years, died Feb. 15 at 91 years of age.

"You really can't write the history of Moses Lake without him," said Freya Liggett, manager of the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center. Ruby was a pioneering physician who opened his practice in town in 1955 and was a civic leader for decades. "He really dove head first into Moses Lake," Liggett said.

He promoted efforts to preserve the region's history and wrote 14 books on Native American history and culture.

Dr. Ruby opened his practice at a time when a doctor still traded good and services for medical care, and Ruby got a obsidian arrowheads that way from his friend and patient Adam East. (East scoured the countryside for artifacts, especially Native American, and what he found forms the basis of the museum's collection.)

The first settlers in Moses Lake tried dryland farming and mostly failed, but a lot of the remnants of their efforts were still around, including their abandoned homes. Dr. Ruby scoured them for artifacts and was proud that he got everything of interest, down to the doorknobs, said museum curator Ann Golden.

Ruby worked for the Public Health Service from 1953 to 1955, serving as the hospital manager at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

That experience sparked his interest in Native American history and culture, and for the rest of his life he studied, collected and wrote about Native Americans, from the Sioux to Chief Moses to the tribes of the Okanogan.

His biography of Chief Moses was published in 1965, and without his research the story of Chief Moses might have disappeared from memory, Golden said. Liggett said that was true of a lot of the results of Ruby's research; that history and those memories might have disappeared without his efforts.

"I'm very honored to have known him," Golden said, and that sentiment was honored by others leaving messages in the guest book at Kayser Chapel.

"He was a great doctor and a great friend," wrote Paul Templeton. "His commitment and service to Moses Lake will always be held in the highest regard. Truly a Moses Lake icon," wrote Ben Murrell.

Doris Holland worked as his office manager for years, she said. "I will miss you very much."

Martha Wong is a nurse who went to work at Samaritan Healthcare in 1977; Dr. Ruby was a supervising physician in the emergency room. "Over the years he became a friend of everyone in our family," Wong said. He was a regular the bi-monthly Bible study held in Wong's home, she said - the doc and his dog Sadie.

In his later years Sadie went pretty much everywhere the doctor went, They were regular visitors at the museum, Liggett said.

"It meant a lot to know him," Golden said.

Ruby will be buried in his hometown of Mabton, and a memorial is service is planned for Moses Lake on a date to be announced.