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RUTH DOROSZ
Born: Apr 18, 1934
Date of Passing: Mar 03, 2026
Send Flowers to the Family Offer Condolences or MemoryRUTH DOROSZ
Mum passed peacefully in her own bed lovingly surrounded by her eldest son Jeff, youngest son Chris, son-in-law Cliff, and granddaughters Reagan and Heather. She managed to gently orchestrate her exit the way she lived her life, with quiet elegance at 91.
Ruth Dorosz (née Pollexfen) broke molds. She was adopted by Stella Johnstone Pollexfen, the first single woman in Canada to legally adopt a child and a founding member of the Baháʼí Faith in Winnipeg. It set the tone for a lifetime of polite persistence and well-mannered rebellion.
Expelled (yes, expelled) from Riverbend School for Girls, now Balmoral Hall, after slipping down a drainpipe to meet her future husband, Bill Girling, Ruth told the tale for decades proud of her independent streak. From there she charmed her way into Angus Business College, graduating as their youngest student, and went on to work at CN Rail and Kruse TBJ & Associates, working with the engineers of Winnipeg’s original mid-century modern airport. She liked to note, not without satisfaction, that she earned “more money than a few men” at the time, all while wearing heels.
On her honeymoon in New York, Ruth contracted polio, a year before the Winnipeg epidemic of 1953. Told she would never walk again; she simply refused to listen. With baby Patti at home, she taught herself to move and eventually to carry all her children (Jeff, Steve, and Chris) up and down the stairs on her hip, a fact which she proudly related. Determination, it turned out, was her quiet superpower.
Decades later in Cyprus, married to her second husband, Captain Michael Dorosz, she navigated the world of officer’s wives and life on base with efficiency, grace and the occasional raised eyebrow. A personal invitation from Jacques Cousteau to go diving was proof she could charm anyone, above or below sea level.
Ruth’s Winnipeg grew and changed around her, but she remained timeless, a woman of class, grit, and quiet humour. Every evening, she poured herself a small glass of sherry, opened a fresh mystery novel, and settled in, still curious, still stylish, still wonderfully herself to the end.
As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Mar 14, 2026
