Ruth Sugerman

Ruth A. Sugerman

1938 – 2026

Ruth A. Sugerman, née Ruth Nerissa Alexander, died at her home in San Francisco on May 3, 2026 from complications related to melanoma. She was 88. Ruth was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1938 and spent the first two decades of her life there. In 1960, she married Dr. A. Arthur Sugerman, newly arrived in the U.S. from his native Dublin, Ireland to practice psychiatry. In 1969, they moved to a larger home in nearby Lawrenceville to accommodate their growing family. They lived there for four decades, until Arthur’s death in 2007 following heart surgery. They were married for 47 years.

Ruth obtained her B.S. in Education at Temple University in 1959, followed by an M.Ed. in Educational Psychology, which she completed in 1960, one week before her wedding. Her first professional position was in the Psychology Department at Temple working for one of her favorite professors, Dr. Eleanor Isard, who became a close friend and mentor.

Ruth’s parents, Bernard and Jessica (née Goldstone) Alexander, were prominent figures in the Jewish community in Trenton and the wider world. They served in leading positions in numerous organizations and held regular Sunday night salons at their home, where matters of the day were hotly debated. The salons and her parents’ activism greatly influenced Ruth, spurring her to a lifelong engagement with social causes.

In 1951, Ruth was the first girl to be bat mitzvah’d at her synagogue, Adath Israel Congregation, over the objections of what she later described as a “stalwart group of older men.” That her father was president of Adath at the time – and her mother president of the Sisterhood – no doubt contributed to smoothing the way, as did the support of the rabbi and rebbetzin, Joshua and Priva Kohn.

Ruth was the youngest of three children and a latecomer to the family, born 14 years after her sister Naomi and nine years after her brother Daniel. She adored her siblings to no end. The tight-knit trio and their families spent countless holidays at each other’s homes, for Shabbos, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkos, Pesach, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, birthday parties – and on and on. They raised their families in tandem: an endless scrum of Chilton, Alexander, and Sugerman children tumbling at backyard barbecues, stealing afikomans, and running riot where/when/however they could.

Among Ruth’s many roles on boards, committees and fund raisers, she was president of Trenton Hebrew Academy, chairman of the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Trenton, president of the Lawrence Hadassah, president of Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley, Penn., and a founding member of The Minyanaires of Lawrenceville – a group of families that met at each other’s homes on a rotating basis for Shabbos and festival services until a local synagogue was established.

Ruth’s community activism is all the more surprising because, for the first few decades, she did it without a driver’s license. Ruth suffered from an eye condition that caused rapid, involuntary movements of the eyes, making it difficult to resolve not-so-distant objects. In the early 1980’s, however, she became one of the first drivers in the country to use a special lens developed to help offset these issues. The newfound freedom allowed her to reenter the job market, and she worked full-time in the Research Department of Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.; as director of volunteer services and then director of development at the Carrier Foundation in Belle Mead, N.J.; and at Stony Brook School in Belle Mead.

Ruth’s activism and career ran in parallel with life as a full-time mother of four children, raising Jeremy, Michael, Adam and Rebecca. Ruth and Arthur placed a high value on education and worked hard to send their kids to private schools: Trenton Hebrew Academy from nursery to junior high; Princeton Day School for the high school years; private and Ivy League colleges for university; two J.D.’s, a research Ph.D. and an M.F.A. for graduate school.

They also took their children on multiple trips to Israel, Ireland, England and the Caribbean, and spent many an aimless summer poolside at the Jewish Community Center in Trenton as well as on vacations to Long Beach Island, N.J., where trampolines and miniature golf supplemented the pleasures of sun, sand, sea and surf. Ruth and Arthur continued to travel on their own after the house emptied out, no longer burdened by the need to count heads at every entrance and exit.

Ruth is predeceased by her husband Arthur, her sister Naomi (Neal), and her brother Daniel (Paula). She is survived by her children, Jeremy (Zindzi), Michael (Elizabeth), Adam, and Rebecca (Chris), and her grandchildren Emmet, Reed, Jude, and Aya. She is also survived by Arthur’s sisters, with whom she remained close throughout her life: Myrna (Cecil) Calmonson in Melbourne, Australia, and Amy (Morris) Oxley of Manchester, England.

Of all her myriad interests, Ruth’s love of family far outranked all else, and she considered her four children her greatest success. She’ll be sorely missed.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Ruth’s memory may be made to Abrams Hebrew Academy by going to https://abramsonline.org and clicking the “Give A Gift” link.

Funeral services and burial were held at Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, Adath Israel Section, in Ewing, NJ.

Funeral arrangements are by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel.

OrlandsMemorialChapel.com/Ruth-Sugerman