James F. Ruff

Fort Collins native Jim Ruff was born to German-Russian immigrant parents in their Smith Street home on November 17, 1937, attended by a midwife. His mother, Mollie, was a cook, his father, Fred, a carpenter. Jim died in his Mountain Avenue home on August 31, 2024. He attended Laurel Elementary, Lincoln Junior High, and FCHS, where, as a student athlete, he was an All-Conference football halfback. Jim graduated from Colorado State University in 1959 with his first engineering degree, subsequently earning two more engineering degrees from CSU, and culminating his education with a Ph.D. from MIT in 1970. Jim met Walta Speece on a blind date, and they married in 1958 while CSU undergraduates. Their son, Michael James, was born in Fort Collins in 1965. Jim served in the U.S. Army (1960-63), receiving Soldier of the Month awards at both Ft. Ord and Ft. Huachuca. As a graduate student, Jim worked parttime at CSU’s Hydraulics Laboratory on the Foothills Campus. His memory of those days was that he shoveled lots of sand. Then, years and graduate degrees later, as a CSU professor, he became Director of that Hydraulics Laboratory. His expertise in water hydraulics took him to projects around the world: irrigation usage in the Nile Valley, sewers in Barcelona, erosion control in Peru and Taiwan. During a three-year leave from CSU, Jim commuted daily to Laramie to design and to supervise construction of dams for Banner Consulting Engineers. Jim retired from CSU in 2006, and immediately began traveling the U.S. to teach National Highway Institute short courses for state Departments of Transportation. Every year in Jim’s childhood, his dad and big brother took little Jim up the Poudre for the first day of fishing season. Always freezing cold wind and icy water, but the excitement of fishing trips stayed with Jim for a lifetime. Yellowstone Park camping trips every other year to fish, bush plane flights into back country Alaska to fish, or an afternoon up the Big Thompson to fish, satisfaction was all the same. For years Jim carried his aluminum boat on top of his pickup, having it handy just in case he could find an hour to see how the fish were biting at Horsetooth. Bird hunting, big game hunting, Jim often had successful hunts, but just as often a successful hunt wasn’t measured in game taken, but rather in the amount of time spent in the company of best friends. In 2012 Jim began experiencing confusion and memory loss, and by 2014 he received a diagnosis of dementia, probable Alzheimer’s. His life to that point, though, had been to identify and to accept big challenges; here was one more, and it was time to get on with it. As his son said, “Dad always had the ability to be amazed and find wonder in everything he saw and did. Dementia opened the door for him to be the little boy who found wonder in the green of the fields and the blue of the sky where others might not even notice.” His last years were supported by family, friends, Dementia Together, VOA’s Caring Companions, Right at Home, and Elderhaus. His last months were supported by care from grandson Nick. They walked downtown for coffee, played cribbage, tended a garden, sat on the porch to watch the world go by. Jim’s last fishing trip was two weeks before he died, and he watched the Tour de Fat from his front porch the Saturday before, greeting neighbors as they passed. Jim is survived by his wife, Walta; his son, Michael; his grandson, Nicholas Bakken; his granddaughter, Madison Ruff; his sister-in-law, Marji Nash (Doug); his niece, Cheryl Brunswig; his nephews, Dave Ruff, Greg Ruff, and Kirk McGregor. He was predeceased by siblings Miriam Hulbert, Wilma Thomas, Edward Ruff, and Doris McGregor. The family would be gratified if memorials were made to Dementia Together, dementiatogether.org. A celebration of Jim’s life will be held later.