GREENVILLE – Ruth M. Files, 65, crossed the final river against the current at 7:20 a.m. June 1, 2011, after seven months fighting with her last ounce of strength against an extremely rare small cell uterine cancer. She was surrounded by her loving husband, her loving family and her loving friends. Ruth was born Feb. 7, 1946, the second child to Richard C. Sr. and Lela (McLaughlin) Cool, both of whom predeceased her.
She attended grammar and high school in Bingham, and Thomas College, Waterville, graduating with a teaching degree in business. She taught for several years in Bingham and Greenville, and has many students who love her and who continually personally expressed their gratitude to her for the integrity and self-reliance she inspired them to achieve through her example. After teaching, Ruth owned and operated three successful businesses high on a hill overlooking the beautiful mountains that cradle Moosehead Lake. Those decades of progress and fun she shared with her first husband, Jimmy Devlin, who predeceased her, and with her present beloved husband, Dick Files. Those businesses were The LakeView Manor – a restaurant and bed and breakfast that drew repeat customers from across the country who grew to love her, and The Devlin House Bed and Breakfast with the same result. Ruth also returned to school to study payroll accounting and tax law and created a payroll business with clients from Greenville to Dover-Foxcroft to Bangor. She has friends she met through these endeavors near and far who love her dearly. Ruth was exposed to the poliovirus at age 3. Recovering at the Hyde Home, Bath, she learned skills that gave her the courage to overcome every challenge she engaged. As a child she joined in all activities with her siblings, including jumping from barn roof beams down three stories into the soft hay, riding pulp logs down the Kennebec River to peddling furiously with one foot the blue bicycle Grampie Chet Cool gave us for Christmas in 1953. Never was there an activity in which she didn’t fully engage with us. As an adult Ruth learned to ski with outriggers and had many joyous runs on Sugarloaf and other Maine mountains, and even skied the Swiss Alps during her second journey through Europe. In recent years Ruth developed post-polio syndrome and required specific adaptations in order to continue living her life to the fullest. She and her dear husband, Dick Files, dreamed, designed and built their final home in the Greenville forest, deciding together every detail of their home, including an extraordinary oriental landscape that was going to be featured in Up North, The Moosehead Magazine.
Ruth was predeceased by her youngest brother, Richard C. Cool Jr. She is survived by her beloved husband, Richard P. Files of Greenville; six adored siblings, Bobbie (Cool) Merrill of Seymour, Tenn., Gary Cool of Concord, Pamela Cool of Canaan, John Cool and his wife, Susan, of Madison, Dorothy Cool and companion, Michael Lawton, of Laconia, N.H., and Marie (Cool) Belanger and her husband, Bernard, of Mount Vernon; her precious kitty, Taffy; numerous special nieces, nephews, stepchildren and loving friends.
There will be a gathering 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at Union Church, UCC, Greenville Center, where the service will be held 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 8. A reception will be after at the home of Ruth and Dick Files, 24 Farm Road, Greenville. In lieu of flowers, we kindly request that donations for Pine Tree Camp for Handicapped Children be mailed care of Camden National Bank, P.O. Box 399, Greenville, ME 04441. Thank you! Cremation and service arrangements are by Giberson Funeral Home, 18 River St., Bingham.