Alan and Betty Ruben

9925 Lake Shore Boulevard

Judge Betty Willis Ruben was a native of Columbus, Georgia. She received an undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and a law degree from George Washington University.

After college, she began working for the Washington D.C. Health department. She also worked on the staff of President John F. Kennedy, where she helped develop the first national program to aid in the treatment and training of the developmentally disabled.

Alan Miles Ruben was born in 1931. He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1953, a Master of Arts in 1956, and a Juris Doctor in 1956 from the University of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1957 and the Ohio Bar in 1971.  He left Lubrizol in 1970 to become a law professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.

The Rubens met at the University of Pennsylvania and married about eight years later. In 1969, the Rubens came to Bratenahl when Alan became legal counsel for The Lubrizol Corporation.

After moving, Betty became involved in the Women’s Movement as a volunteer. She served as counsel for the American Association of Women University Professors. She then served for six years as a referee in the Probate Division of the County Court of Common Pleas. Her work in the court was primarily with commitment hearings for the mentally ill and retarded.

She became a juvenile judge in 1981, where she could pursue her interest in improving the condition of children that began while she was working in the poverty-stricken areas of Washington, D.C.

Alan was on the board of the United States Olympic Commission and, in 1972, was captain of the United States Olympic Fencing Team.