Former North Aurora mayor was about family, teaching and service

This story has been edited to correct the date for visitation.

Mark Ruby, the former mayor of North Aurora, was remembered as a family man who dedicated his life to teaching and serving others.

Ruby died Sunday at age 86. He'd lived at a senior facility since suffering a brainstem hemorrhage in 2013, his wife Marilyn said. "This last couple of months, he had been slowly, we think, just ready to go. It was natural - no disease, no big thing that happened. He just slowly slipped away peacefully."

The couple was married for 44 years and raised two sons. "He was the perfect husband and dad," his wife said, recalling his even-keeled temperament, his readiness to help his children and his love of traveling with family.

Ruby served with the Army in Germany and retired after 38 years of teaching social studies, including history, at Jefferson Middle School in Aurora and West Aurora High School. He was elected trustee for North Aurora in 1993 and was mayor from 1997 to 2004.

Ruby was a consensus-builder, skilled at communicating, and always mindful of asking questions and listening to other people's opinions, said Kevin Drendel, who's worked as village attorney for North Aurora since the 1990s.

"He was a well-educated man who was thoughtful and circumspect, and always a gentleman," Drendel said.

Ruby also served on the executive committee of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, as president of the DuKane Valley Council and on the Kane County bike/pedestrian committee.

He played piano with big bands in Yorkville and Elk Grove Village and was a model train hobbyist who loved geography. He was known as "the trivia guy," his wife said. "He knew everything about everything," she said.

The couple moved from North Aurora to the Mill Creek subdivision in Blackberry Township to be closer to one of their sons. Ruby was on the Mill Creek Water Reclamation District Committee and he and his wife helped take care of the grandkids. "He took them to baseball games. We watched them play basketball and baseball," Marilyn Ruby said.

The brainstem hemorrhage in 2013 didn't affect his mental capacity but made his speech somewhat difficult to understand and confined him to a wheelchair, his wife said. His physical condition deteriorated over the years, and friends always gathered to visit him on New Year's Eve, his wife said. "We would drink a toast and he was part of that," she said.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Michael J. Fox Foundation at michaeljfox.org or the Illinois Railway Museum at irm.org.

Visitation is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at The Healy Chapel, 332 W. Downer Place in Aurora. Burial will be private at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.