Ruth Beitchman Gavis, an Action in Maturity seniors program official who also taught writing, died of a stroke March 21 at Sinai Hospital. The former Village of Cross Keys resident was 92.

Born in New York City and raised in Boston, she was the daughter of Frieda Romascan Beitchman, a New York and Boston librarian, and Louis Beitchman, a drug store owner. She earned a degree at Boston Teachers College and became an elementary school teacher in the Arlington, Massachusetts, school system.

Mrs. Gavis met her future husband Jerome “Jerry” Gavis, a chemical engineer, through friends in Boston. She moved to the Aberdeen area to marry him while he was serving in the Army at Edgewood Arsenal. During that time she taught in a one-room school near Perryman.

“Both our parents were pioneers in advancing the cultural and scientific interests of the United States by participating in a scientific exchange program with the USSR during the Cold War years 1965-1966,” her daughter, Elizabeth Gavis, said. “Our parents lived in the USSR for six months and met with the Russian scientific community and other scientists from around the world. It was quite an experience — with my brother and me living in Moscow.”

Mrs. Gavis later earned a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University and taught creative and technical writing and English at Catonsville Community College and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Along the way, she became fluent in Russian and French and was an active member of two different French clubs and the Johns Hopkins Woman’s Club.

She and her husband enjoyed square dancing and sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

“My mother sought new challenges and became an accomplished administrator and leader at Goodwill Industries and the Maryland Association of Dyslexic Adults and Youths,” her daughter, Elizabeth, said. “She was also proud to be development director of Action in Maturity in Hampden, a nonprofit that helped seniors to stay mobile and active through shuttle bus and other services.”

“She had a can-do disposition — when she set out her mind to accomplish a task or goal she was unstoppable. She had a wonderful gift of conversation — and could talk to anyone,” said her son, Alexander Gavis. “She got satisfaction at seeing people succeed. She loved her time at Goodwill and its workers. She even used her mother to test the bus service at Action in Maturity.”

Her children said their mother was an accomplished grant writer and had the ability to raise funds by tactfully requesting donations.

Survivors include her daughter, Elizabeth Gavis, of Princeton, New Jersey; a son, Alexander Gavis, of Wellesley, Massachusetts; and five grandchildren. Her husband, Jerome “Jerry” Gavis, a Hopkins chemical engineering professor who conducted early research on the Chesapeake Bay’s environmental health, died in 2011.

Services were held March 23 at Sol Levinson & Brothers.

Contact Jacques Kelly at jacques.kelly@baltsun.com and 410-332-6570.