Ruth Barker Winch Scholarship
Recipients to the Ruth Barker Winch Scholarship Fund must be graduating from one of the following school districts: Brocton, Cassadaga Valley, Chautauqua Lake, Clymer, Maple Grove, Panama, Sherman, Southwestern or Westfield. Recipients must be continuing their education full-time in college, university or at graduate school.
Criteria for the Ruth Barker Winch Scholarship:
Special consideration is to be given to candidates who are handicapped or are intending to train to work with handicapped person(s) and to candidates of high ability but with limited financial resources.
Scholastic ability
Good citizenship
Good character
Financial need
Potential & motivation for successful pursuit of the candidate’s scholastic goals
Ruth Barker Winch
1902 - 2001
Ruth Barker Winch a Westfield resident since 1937, was born June 6, 1902, in Niobe, the daughter of Constantine T. and Ina Buell Barker.
She graduated from Lakewood High School in 1919, earned her bachelor’s of science degree at Syracuse University in 1923 and her master’s degree at Columbia University of New York in 1932, majoring in English and education.
Ruth taught in Jamestown, Orlando, Fla., and Cranford, N.J. She also taught remedial reading at the State College at Fredonia.
From 1942 to 1962, she was superintendent of schools of the fourth and first supervisory districts of Chautauqua County. She was an active member of many educational organizations, including the Kappa Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, of which she was a charter member. She also belonged to the American Association of University Women since 1923, served four years as president of the Chautauqua-Westfield branch of the AAUW and joined Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. She was a mentor of the Chautauqua County Vocational Education and Extension Board, where she served as president and a founder of the Chautauqua County Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The “multi-purpose roomí’ was dedicated in her honor in 1970 at the then-new Ashville school.
After retiring in 1962, along with her husband, she continued as a successful real estate developer in New York and lakefront developer at Cypress Shores near Disney World in Florida. She and her husband were also dealers in timber, cattle and ponies.
In 1989, she set up a fund to provide annual $1,000 scholarships to each of 11 major schools in her supervisory district in Chautauqua County. In 1994, she established an endowment fund at Fredonia State College for the enrichment of foreign culture students both here and abroad, was active in the college’s Elderhostel Program and taught remedial English at the college, where she was honored with the dedication of a conference room in her name.
Along with her brother, she donated the Barker Coat of Arms and an oil painting to the Barker Library in Fredonia. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi, beginning in 1923; an active member of Southwestern Tier Association for the Blind; Chautauqua County 4-H Club; Literacy Volunteers of Westfield; Girl Scouts; longtime member of the Ripley School Belles, which named her Educator of the Year for 1989; honorary board member of the American Cancer Society; and the First Baptist Church of Jamestown for 89 years.
Mrs. Winch received awards for her dedication and contributions in education from: the Westfield Academy and Central School for Friend to Education, Chautauqua County School Boards Association for dedicated service, Delta Kappa Gamma’s Certificate of Appreciation and the Northern Chautauqua County Retired Teachers Association’s “Resolution of Appreciation for Service to the Youth of Chautauqua County.’’
The American Cancer Society’s annual daffodils sale in the spring was very special to her, leading to her early return each year from Florida to assist the local effort. Her organ and piano abilities were enjoyed by nursing homes and organizations throughout the area. Her family and friends will long remember the sharing of her music.
Ruth and Grover A. Winch, were married on July 15, 1932, in Grover City, Pa. Grover passed away in 1983 and Ruth on May 19, 2001.