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Mary Ruth Sole, née Hewitt, passed away at home on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, surrounded by the comforting care of Pauline Mungai, her family, and Beth Israel Lahey Hospice. She finally succumbed to Parkinson’s after a nearly 25-year battle. Though it disabled her body, it never stifled her humor, wit, and grace, which prevailed even to the end. Throughout many years of military and corporate family moves with her husband Jim, Mary Ruth worked in a university gene research program, taught science in inner city Philadelphia, and served two hospice organizations: one in California, the other in Massachusetts.

Raised in the small town of Tonawanda, NY, where her family published several daily community newspapers, she recognized early the importance of community involvement, leading her to more than 30 years as volunteer and staff with multiple Cape Ann organizations. From 1988-1991 she developed and supervised training with Hospice of the North Shore (now Care Dimensions), for both their family and bereavement trainees. In 1999, Mary Ruth took her husband’s place on the Rockport Planning Board, where she served for a number of years working on several housing developments, including Cape Ann Tool Company. She was especially proud of the work they did in the years-long process of approving the Shalin Liu Performance Center for Rockport Music.

In addition to her work on the planning board, Mary Ruth also devoted endless hours and energy to Rockport Music as a volunteer, starting in the fledgling years of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival (RCMF). She wrote grants, promoted the expansion of musical experiences that became Rockport Music, and helped recruit RCMF’s first full-time music director, David Deveau. Mary Ruth served on the Board of Trustees from 1993-1998 and as the President of the Board from 1995-1998, rejoining the board again from 2001-2003. In 2014, she received the annual Rockport Music Lovgren award for outstanding service as a volunteer.

She is survived by her daughter, MaryLee (Sole) Miller, her husband James, and their daughter Amelia (Miller) Schwab and her husband Stephen, all from Hooksett, NH; her daughter, Jennifer (Sole) Molnar, her husband George, and their children Evan and Julia, all from Sedalia, CO; brother Barnard Hewitt of Crystal River, SC; and her daughter-in-law, Kristina (Baker) Sole, who resides in Oslo, Norway with her two sons, Benjamin and Sebastian. She is predeceased by her husband of 40 years, James W. Sole Sr.; her son, James W. Sole Jr.; her brother, Charles E Hewitt III; and her sister, Ahmee Hewitt.