Ruth L. Rickard

Ruth Louise Rickard was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa on April 20, 1952, to Everett D. Rickard and Marilyn Alice Thomas Rickard. She passed away in The Colony, Texas on December 2, 2020. Ruth was the youngest of three children, stepbrother Jerry and sister Alice. Later, in order to complete high school in Rolfe, John Morgan (cousin) joined our family and since then has felt like a brother.

Growing up in Rolfe, Iowa allowed a world where there were no limits to “play time.” When it was time to venture out of the house there were always neighbors next door for more fun. The Kennedy and Peterson households provided all a pre-school kid needed for fun. Starting school expanded Ruth’s horizons to a larger neighborhood. She began developing lifelong school friends, and now could arrange to spend the days when a snowstorm hit with a friend. Riding bikes for miles with no concerns, until too tired to ride back, only required the nearest farmhouse to call Dad for a pickup. During high school years, the entertainment in Rolfe was driving the main street area to check on friends or having a slumber party and making a baked Alaska.

Ruth enjoyed school and always excelled academically, graduating with honors, but had many more interests. She took piano lessons, played French horn, participated in grade school operettas, in high school plays, etc. She especially enjoyed “swing choir” in high school. Her life also centered around membership in the Presbyterian church where she was active in youth fellowship groups. Ruth graduated high school in 1970 and throughout the rest of her life continued contacts with many friends that had started kindergarten together.

Ruth started on a path of higher education that fall. She graduated from Iowa State with a Bachelor of Science degree. She then held two jobs in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1979, with the encouragement of her dear friend Margaret Rose, she moved to Fort Worth, Texas. She became the executive secretary to the attorney in charge of FDA regulations at Alcon Labs and started night school to become a paralegal. In 1983 she entered law school at University of Texas, Austin and in 1986 she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. Her education continued through 1988 when she earned a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.). Following this, she took the opportunity to travel for several months to many countries before joining a Houston law firm. In the following years until 2001, she held various legal positions. She was a professor at two law schools and a staff attorney for the Dallas Federal Court of Appeals until 2006 when she opened a private practice. Ruth became interested in the collaborative law movement in its early stages and was very involved. Her ability to really listen and develop solutions to conflicts was the most satisfying work to her.

Ruth enjoyed many years at Unity Church of Dallas in the choir and theater group. She helped to create the “kinDship” service organization while there. She later was active in the choir of the First United Methodist Church of Celina.

A sharply skilled and accomplished writer herself, Ruth treasured skillful writing, a well-turned phrase, and any sort of art or good craftsmanship. While Ruth could hold her own regally in any formal or intellectual circle, her warmth and compassion drew in all as the treasured equal she saw them to be. She had a deep desire to be understanding of other’s needs and strove to be helpful in finding solutions.

Throughout her life, Ruth provided well for her beloved cats. Each was rescued from a rough life into her home and loved. The loss of Ruth is felt deeply by her family and vast group of friends. Time together for Sunday dinners included mom, Alice and Bill, Marc, Tiffany, Jensen, Austin and Ruth. That time was a weekly highlight. Her humor, wit and wisdom are treasured by all. She made a difference in so many ways, in so many lives.

On the same day as Ruth passed, her aunt Phyllis Ruth Thomas Morgan Long Walker also passed away at the age of 94. Ruth is survived by her sister Alice (William) Gough. Stepbrother Jerry (Sharon) Rickard. Nephews Marcus (Tiffany) Gough, Jeff (Heather) Rickard, James (Joyce) Rickard, Justin (Erin) Rickard and Jason (Shannon) Rickard. Other survivors include her uncle, Robert Thomas, aunt Saydha Thomas and many cousins, great nephews and nieces.

There will be a Service of Remembrance in the Fellowship Hall at 2:30pm on Sunday, December 5, 2021, at Unity Church of Dallas, 6525 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75230.  The service will be conducted by Neil Mowles. She will be placed with her parents in Clinton-Garfield Cemetery in Rolfe, Iowa.

Resolution of the Dallas Bar Association

Whereas, RUTH LOUISE RICKARD was born on April 20, 1952, in the farming community of Rolfe, Iowa, and passed away on December 2, 2020, at the age of sixty-eight;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD graduated from Rolfe Community High School in 1970 as valedictorian of her class;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD attended Iowa State University where she majored in psychology and linguistics; she spent time studying abroad at the University of Vienna, Paedagogisches Akademie and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD after graduation, worked for the Iowa Department of Public Health, where she assisted with inspections of group homes and long-term care facilities, and in that role she gained experience in the role of legal systems in the protection of the public;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD thereafter was employed as Assistant Director of Development for Drake University and, after moving to Texas, as an Executive Assistant to the Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs at Alcon Laboratories in Fort Worth, gaining further experience with laws and regulations governing the activities of non-profit and for-profit entities;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD then became a full-time paralegal for a law firm in Fort Worth, and subsequently served as a law clerk to an administrative hearing officer with the Employees Retirement System of Texas, further expanding her familiarity with the Texas legal system;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree cum laude from The University of Texas School of Law in 1986, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas International Law Journal;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD served as a judicial law clerk for the Hon. Thomas Gibbs Gee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD pursued graduate legal studies in international business at the University of London, Queen Mary College, which in December, 1988 awarded her a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.);

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD was admitted to the State Bar of Texas on May 5, 1989; she entered the private practice oflaw as an Associate in commercial litigation with the law firm of SUSMAN GODFREY in Houston and thereafter doing bankruptcy work with WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES in Houston and Dallas;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD entered academia, serving as a writing consultant at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, as an Associate Clinical Professor and Director of Legal Writing at Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, and subsequently as an Associate Professor at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, where she taught commercial law and conflicts of law;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD returned to Texas in 2001 to become staff attorney for the Dallas Court of Appeals, working for Justices Jim Moseley, Martin Richter, Michael O’Neill, and David Bridges;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD in 2006 opened her private legal practice as a sole practitioner, serving clients in the areas of appellate law, civil matters, business transactions, commercial litigation, probate, and collaborative law;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD was a member of this Association and active in its Collaborative Law Section as well as the Solo & Small Firm Section;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD was well known as a stalwart and passionate advocate of peacemaking and creative, non-violent, and nonadversarial approaches to conflict resolution; she became a leader in the field of collaborative law, an approach to dispute resolution created by Minnesota attorney Stu Webb (who by chance was also from Rolfe, Iowa) that is a private, flexible process for the peaceful resolution of disputes and the preservation of relationships, in which the parties are represented by dedicated settlement counsel and work to negotiate resolutions based on their underlying interests and concerns rather than on their legal positions, claims, and defenses; she joined the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers, served on its board of directors, and in 2008 contributed an article for the Michigan Bar Association entitled “Authentic Lawyering: Engaging Your Head and Your Heart”;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD was an early member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, taught in numerous collaborative law training programs and continuing legal education seminars, served as an officer or board member of the Collaborative Law Sections of the State Bar of Texas ,and this Association and as a leader in the Global Collaborative Law Council (formerly known as the Texas Collaborative Law Council); she also was a founding member of the Attorneys Without Litigation collaborative law practice group in Dallas;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD further contributed to the development of collaborative law by co-authoring a chapter in the State Bar of Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Section’s ADR Handbook entitled “Conflict Resolution in Health Care” (published in September 2018); she also mentored others in the field of collaborative law-always willing to listen, share her insights, encourage new techniques and to develop skills in others;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD recently worked to advance the “conscious contracts” approach to the negotiation of contracts, which helps parties craft durable agreements that effectively align their interests and meet their needs and goals so as to minimize the risk of future conflicts; on behalf of the Collaborative Law Section, at the State Bar’s Annual Meeting, she coordinated a presentation by a leading exponent of the approach to contract creation;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD was active for many years in the Unity Church of Dallas-singing in the church choir and participating in numerous amateur theatrical productions presented by the church; thereafter she became active in the First United Methodist Church of Celina, Texas;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD also served the community through the provision of pro bono legal services to clients she met through her faithbased activities, and through her participation in Kindship, a service organization that among other things has held fund-raising events for students seeking to pursue higher education in the performing arts;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD loved the humanities, social sciences, and performing arts, studying improvisational theatre in part to improve her ability to develop creative and positive solutions to conflict; she enjoyed good food and good company, reading, family, and (in her words) “bad tennis” and “conversing over cappuccino”;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD despite significant physical limitations caused by many years of chronic illness, was unfailingly positive and forward-looking, cheerful, fun-loving, courageous, and uncomplaining;

Whereas, RUTH RICKARD is survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Alice Rickard Gough and William Gough; her half-brother and sister-in-law, Jerry and Sharon Rickard; several nephews and great-nephews; and extended family; by her many friends and professional colleagues; and by her beloved cats Gracie and Zoe; and

Whereas, it is more than appropriate that the Members of this Association record their appreciation and gratitude for the dedication and service of RUTH LOUISE RICKARD to this Association, her profession, and her community;

Now, Therefore, be it resolved, by the Members of this Association, duly assembled in regular meeting, that we observe, with sorrow, the death of RUTH LOUISE RICKARD, and that we express our sympathy and condolences to the members of her family;

Be it further resolved, that this action be recorded in the permanent records and minutes of the Association and that a copy of this Resolution be forwarded to the family of RUTH LOUISE RICKARD as a token of the esteem in which she was held by the Association.

Dallas Bar Association

I, John Alan Goren, Chair of the Memorial & History Committee of the Dallas Bar Association, hereby certify that the Board of Directors of this Association has authorized the preparation of this Memorial Resolution and directed that it be presented to the members of the Association at its next Annual Meeting for ratification and approval.