Ruth B. Peck, College Bookstore staff and Honorary member of the Bowdoin Alumni Association, died on March 29, 2023, in Brunswick, Maine.

(The following was provided by the Funeral Alternatives Group – Lewiston on April 5, 2023)

Ruth B. Peck

Ruth Edna Bickford was born in November, 1927, in Winchester, MA, oldest child to parents Sarah (née Cudmore) and Walter Bickford. She graduated from Lexington (MA) High School in 1945 and Hickox Secretarial School in Boston in 1948.

She was predeceased by younger siblings, Louise Bickford and Robert Bickford (and his wife, Barbara).

Ruth married Charles B. Peck III on September 4, 1948, and they were together for thirty years. During those years, they lived in California, Switzerland, England, and Lexington, MA, before moving to the MacKinnon family home in Topsham, ME, and finally settling down in Brunswick.

Ruth worked at educational institutions in California and Massachusetts before landing her dream job as the trade book buyer for the Moulton Union Bookstore at Bowdoin College. She retired as the manager of the department after sixteen years of service. Ruth loved learning, gardening, reading, birding, hiking, traveling, playing Scrabble, and staying in close touch with family and friends.

She leaves behind four daughters, Nancy R. Peck of Vermont; Deborah R. Peck of Maine; Judith C. Peck of California; and Carol P. Robins of Maine as well as two sons-in-law and four grandchildren.

Ruth’s children want to acknowledge and thank the staff at The Garden and Thornton Hall. Though stubborn, they learned to love her and appreciate her humor and tenacity for life.

She truly believed in supporting charities concerned with health, politics, women’s rights and non-profits that benefited the state of Maine.