08/19/2021
To all in the Animal Exchange community:
Ruth Ann Berberian Hanessian - a long-time independent businesswoman and science advocate in Rockville - passed away on July 31, 2021. She was loved and admired by her three children; four grandchildren; her last and surviving pet, Little Bird; abundant friends, and the many Animal Exchange customers, employees, and pets that she touched over her 82 years.
In keeping with her lifelong dedication to biology and science, she has donated her body to science.
Plans for a Celebration of Life will be held in May 2022 in tribute to her years of holding the Blessings of the Animals around the time of her birthday.
Born to Estelle Bush Berberian and Daniel Berberian in New York City on May 24, 1939, Ruth was always an inquisitive child, marveling at the natural world, and officially began her scientific instruction at The Bronx High School of Science, an elite coed public institution devoted to building generations of the world’s leading scientists.
Her education continued at Cornell University, where Ruth earned a degree in Biology with a special focus on Ornithology. Her lifelong love for and devotion to birds was well captured by Ruth’s favorite quote from Victor Hugo, “I was always a lover of soft-winged things.”
Ruth raised her children and led an active and diverse life in Maryland. As a garden club and Girl Scout leader, Ruth cultivated a love of nature in her children. Gazing at the sky during meteor showers in the middle of the night from the backyard, cooking peanut butter fondue over a campfire, and traveling across the US while camping in a tent for a summer are signature early memories cherished by her children.
Her professional accomplishments centered on biology and the natural world. She worked for the National Institute of Standards and Technologies on their nuclear power project, started managing a local pet store, and ultimately established and built her own business.
The iconic Animal Exchange Pet Store opened 1979 in Rockville, MD, one of the community’s first woman-owned businesses. The Animal Exchange served as a hub for learning and care for animals featuring pets ideally matched for both the vitality of the animal and the pet owner. She nurtured pet husbandry skills through her always ready counsel and training programs to ensure that their pets were raised in healthy, stimulating, and safe settings. She was known for the diverse selection of small animals that were locally-raised, her protection of endangered and exotic birds, and her referrals to local dog and cat shelters of people looking for their perfect pet. She rescued Artie, a wild caught black palm cockatoo who lived in the store for 18 years until she found a home for him in a sanctuary where he fathered a son. Over the course of 32 years until Ruth’s retirement in 2016, the store also evolved into a local community news hub with regular visits by many who didn't even have pets at home.
Featured in People Magazine in April 1997, she followed with a published book “Birds on the Couch” in 1998. In 2012, Ruth continued sharing her knowledge of animal care with the world as a YouTube creator with information-packed videos garnering over 680,000 views.
Ruth was a recognized leader in the pet industry for almost 40 years. Acting on the board of PIJAC in setting standards and policy for animal care and practices that have nurtured the human and animal bond. Her passion for birds led to a breeding program that helped to maintain the vitality of pet birds.
Ruth fused her expertise in animal care and science in her role as a member of the National Institute of Medicine’s animal labs oversight board. Inspecting the facility twice yearly, Ruth represented the interests of the animals in those gatherings, ensuring that the protocols defining animal research incorporated the care fundamentals for the animals as well.
Active with her mother Estelle Berberian in establishing the current location for the Rockville Senior Center and then creating and running the Senior Lend-a-Pet program for seniors that matched pets with seniors. By pairing pets with the abilities of the recipient, the program led to long and mutually beneficial pet/host relationships.
When diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, Ruth’s focus on science turned to the needs of others and she founded the “Lunch Bunch”, a weekly gathering of people living with cancer. The sharing of personal and treatment experiences and hosting of professionals in the cancer field resulted in powerful and sustaining support for participants. As the gatherings grew, local restauranteurs competed to host the Friday luncheons.
A close friend of former Rockville mayor Phyllis Marcuccio, Ruth supported her Rockville Science Consortium, which started the annual Rockville Science Days and the effort to create a Rockville Science Center. Ruth was a popular fixture at the Science Days with her animal displays and was a major promoter of the Consortium’s efforts through the Animal Exchange. She regularly voiced support for all of the community’s science efforts, especially at City of Rockville Mayor and Council meetings.
Her dedication to science and understanding of the power of innovation led Ruth to single-handedly launch the Rockville Science Café on January 27, 2009. For a decade, she organized and coordinated these engaging gatherings that brough scientists and science-enthusiasts together. The role of innovator institutions in the Montgomery County economy and community made the impact of the Cafés far reaching. In 2018, she successfully organized a “Super” Science Café featuring Dr. Temple Grandin, an autistic professor of animal science at Colorado State University, filling The Music Center at Strathmore. Due to her dedication to building a bricks-and-mortar Rockville Science Center, she allowed the Center to a fix its name to the Cafés in order to support the effort and the Cafés continue to the present day. She also coordinated Science Tuesdays at the Rockville Senior Center. Through these outreach efforts, she was well known to many scientists in the area.
Ruth was founding member of the Rockville Women Business Owners, sat on the Kiwanis Club of Rockville Board and the Rockville Sign Board, and was involved in the Rockville Chamber of Commerce and Maryland Invasive Species Council, Rockville Native Species Network. Her Hermit Crab races at the Montgomery County Fair were a cherished community tradition.
As a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville, Ruth served on the St. Francis Flock and the Environmental Stewardship Committee. For a devotional in 2017 she wrote, “To treasure
what I have, to mourn what we have lost, and to look ahead for how I can be a disciple that, while fearful at times, can still be amazed and believe in tomorrow with God’s grace.”
Ruth was loved and adored by her three children and their spouses– Margaret and Scott Swetz, Lynn Hanessian and Eric Warshaw, and Daniel Hanessian and Deidre Davis and her four grandchildren--Christopher, Matthew, Isaac and India—and the many people and animals whose lives she touched over her life.
For those wanting to remember Ruth, the family is asking that donations be made in her honor and memory to:
Kiwanis Club of Rockville, Ruth Hanessian Memorial, PO Box 1401, Rockville, MD 20849
or
Cornell Lab of Ornithology (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/).
Ruth Hanessian
