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Ruth Sights Gurd, M.D., a 12 year resident of Albuquerque, originally from Paducah, KY died November 11, 2002 as a result of complication of cancer. Dr. Gurd attended St. Mary Academy and graduated from Augusta Tilghman High School in Paducah in 1945. She was the daughter of Dr. Warren P. Sights and Helen Coleman Sights. In Paducah she was active in sports and music, attending the National Music Camp at Interlochen, MI where she was principle flutist with the orchestra. After high school she graduated from the University of Michigan where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, Wyvern and Mortarboard Honorary Societies. She became a Research Associate at Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago and later at Washington University she received two Fellowships, one from the Medical School and one from the National Institute of Health along with a Graduate Fellowship from Kappa Kappa Gamma. After receipt of the medical degree, she moved with her husband, Frank R.N. Gurd to New York where she received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Life Insurance Medical Research Fund at Cornell University College of Medicine. On their subsequent move to Indianapolis and then Bloomington, IN she was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Chemistry of Indiana University before becoming Professor of Biochemistry at Indiana University School of Medicine and Emeritus Professor on their retirement in Albuquerque. She was a member of the Biophysical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, the Nutrition Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Federated Societies for Experimental Biology, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Diabetes Association. Towards others she was a reliable friend, an innovative researcher, a skillful and supportive teacher, a positive advisor, consistently outgoing, the nucleus of her family. She excelled in developing the combined Ph.D-M.D., program at Indiana University through her direction of research and training, and in intellectual and personal guidance of the students. In retirement, she became active in playing the piano after a 40 year hiatus and she took piano lessons and taught others. She loved music and attended concerts when able. She was preceded in death by her parents; and her brother, Dr. Warren P. Sights, Jr. She is survived by her husband, Frank; her daughter, Martha Helen Gurd; son, Charles Baillie Gurd; as well as by her stepchildren, Fraser Baillie Gurd and Kathleen Gurd Lamb; and four grandchildren. Memorial Services will be held on January 3, 2002 at 4:00 p.m. at St. Chad Episcopal Church, 7171 Tennyson NE, Albuquerque. Gifts in her memory are welcome at Friends of Music, PO Box 37213, Albuquerque, NM 87176-7213; Santa Fe Pro Musica, PO Box 2091, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2091; Presbyterian Hospice, 8300 Constitution Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111; Pathways Inc.: A Mental Health Community Center, 617 Truman NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Cremation arrangements by Sunrise Society of NM, 891-8200
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