Ruth Laura Grueter Hackett, our dear mother, grandmother and friend, has departed this life peacefully, at home and surrounded by family on March 19. Ruth was born in Paterson, N.J. on March 23, 1931, the daughter of merchants who owned Paterson Coffee Roasters. Her early life spanned the tumultuous decades of the Great Depression and WWII. She graduated from Pompton Lakes High School in 1948 and the Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing in 1951. As a Registered Nurse, she was a caring person who always sought to discern and meet the needs of others. Her career in nursing spanned more than a quarter century and included clinical care, supervisory and administrative roles, and she retired from the Home Care Department of Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y.
Ruth and William E. Hackett Jr. were married in 1951 and built their first home in Wayne, N.J., where they started a family before moving to Allendale, N.J. in 1960. In the 1970s they purchased property from T. Delano Breyer and built a home on Pleasant Cove in Boothbay, with the help of family and friends.
She enjoyed contract bridge, decorative painting, collecting bric-a-brac, and gardening.
She was an exemplary mother and grandmother who passed on her strong work ethic, her commitment to excellence in professional life, and most importantly her love. She would sometimes remark, “I think my life’s purpose has been to raise my four boys.”
She was preceded in death by her parents, Fred Grueter and Cathryn Wilson Grueter; older brother, Fred Grueter Jr. (KIA Nov. 22, 1944, 411th Inf Reg, 103d Inf Div, US Army); and husband, William E. Hackett Jr. (Jan. 31, 1930 – March 14, 1998).
She is survived by sons and spouses, William R. (Deborah Anthony) Hackett of Ogden, Utah, Robert F. (Irmalyn McPeek) Hackett of Boothbay, Thomas E. (Robin Engler) Hackett of Brielle, N.J., and Jonathan N. Hackett of Boothbay; 10 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
A family gathering in Boothbay will occur later this year to celebrate her life and legacy.
