TOPSHAM – Ruth Ring Harvie of Topsham died peacefully at home after a long illness on July 19, 2026. She was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1934, the daughter of Charles Warren Ring and Constance Varney Ring. After years of long summer season residence, the family moved to “Meadowsweet Farm” on Adams Road in Brunswick in 1947.

Ruth was a talented, active and adventurous young person. After attending public schools in

Fall River and Brunswick, she graduated from Emma Willard School in Troy, New York in 1952. She graduated from Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont in 1956. At Bennington, she majored in Music and Art and specialized in choral conducting. As a senior project, she organized and directed the Bennington College Madrigal Singers, a choral group which she led on an extended concert tour. After graduation, she joined the faculty of Smith College as Assistant Choir Director, where she enhanced her conducting career by training and directing three choirs each of the three years of her tenure.

Ruth returned to Brunswick in 1959. She conducted the Brunswick Choral Society and several other local groups and became a frequent guest conductor of college and community choirs throughout New England for many years, ending in 1981 conducting a service at the Washington National Cathedral.

In 1959, she met Jim Harvie, a naval architect and former naval officer who had just started work at Bath Iron Works.  His mother had written to her childhood friend, Ruth’s mother, to help him to establish local friends. That introduction was a success, resulting in Ruth and Jim’s wedding in 1960. They renovated an old house while building a new house, “Heron Cove” on Howard’s Point in Brunswick where they lived until 2011 when they moved to Topsham.

Their homes were furnished with heritage art and antiques.

A son, John was born in 1962 and a daughter, Margaret (Meg) was born in 1965. As the children started school, Ruth travelled to England to research the new British Primary School Program, and decided to establish a small demonstration school. She founded and directed for three years The School for Parents and Children to acquaint parents and educators with the use of ideas found there. The school was named by the New England Educational Association as the best small primary school found in their surveys.

Horses became the next focus of Ruth’s activity, starting with a pony for Meg, growing to four Morgan hoses and a barn on the farm. Ruth enjoyed training, riding and all related activities, including mowing fields and grading roads on her green tractor. Meg joined the United States Pony Club, which focuses on riding and horsemanship for young people on various scored levels. Ruth brought international riders to the farm for training and caring for the horses they rode. She served as a national examiner for the Pony Club and produced a three-volume Manual of Horsemanship for which she was awarded the Founder’s Award by the Club. She assisted in a University of Pennsylvania research project on equine illnesses. One thirteen-year-old neighboring rider, Linda, joined the family on the death of her mother. Several collie dogs lived on the farm.

Jim is a lifetime sailor, so sailing was a major activity for the whole family. They cruised their Hinckley Pilot 35 yawl MADRIGAL coastwise from Halifax to the Chesapeake for fifty years and cruised on chartered boats and on the boats of friends in Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, the Bahamas and the many islands in the eastern Caribbean. When not afloat, they enjoyed winter trips to the Virgin Islands and Barbados. In recent years they have taken cruise ships to Scandinavia, the Rhine and the Caribbean.

Ruth painted in bright colors and filled her home with music and interesting people. She was a member on the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the United States Pony Club, the Maine Maritime Museum, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust and local conservation groups. She granted a conservation easement on thirty-five acres of her farm to the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, reflecting her interest in conservation work.

She was predeceased by her parents, Charles Warren Ring and Constance Varney Ring, and her brother, Charles Warren (Johnny) Ring. She is survived by her husband James Harvie, her children John Barr Harvie (Andrew) of Stow, MA, Margaret “Meg” Harvie Coon (Howard) of Cumberland, ME and Linda Ann Elliott (Shawn) of Scarborough, ME and grandchildren Andrew James Coon of Cumberland, ME, Allison Stevens Coon of Boston, MA, and Lydia Elliott of Scarborough, ME.

A service of remembrance will be held at 2:00 pm on Sunday, August 2, at the First Parish Church, 217 Maine St, Brunswick, ME. Donations in Ruth’s memory may be made to The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. Arrangements and guidance are under the direction of Stetson’s Funeral Home & Cremation Care, 12 Federal Street, Brunswick, ME. Condolences, memories and photos may be shared with the family by visiting the Stetson’s Funeral Home website www.StetsonsFuneralHome.com