We are saddened to report that Joe McDade, a longtime member of The John Updike Society, has died. His obituary reads, simply, “Joseph Skelton McDade was born on May 29, 1965, in Needham, Massachusetts. He passed away on January 16, 2026, at the age of 60. Joseph was a resident of Katy, Texas.” The site has a place to add memories and offer condolences. Friends have left messages on his Facebook page as well.

For 30+ years, Joe was Professor of English at Houston Community College, where, according to Rate My Professor, his students found him to be “hilarious” and a “tough grader” who “gives good feedback.” Updike society members who interacted with Joe also found him to be quick-witted and wryly jocular. Joe attended a number of John Updike Society biennial conferences, including the very first one in 2010 at Alvernia University in Reading, Pa., where he presented a paper on “Updike’s Great Ambivalence: Rabbit and Emersonian Romanticism.”

Those who attended the fourth conference at the University of South Carolina, when Joe applied Emersonianism to Updike’s A Month of Sundays, most likely remember him as the exuberant organizer of the first (and thus far only) Rabbit Open best ball golf tournament at Cobblestone Park in Columbia. Always one to go all out, Joe had t-shirts made especially for the occasion, as well as printed golf balls for every entrant and a trophy for the winning foursome to hoist. And being such a golf nut as he was—a passion Updike also shared—Joe finished on the winning team. Society members last saw Joe at the 7th Biennial JUS Conference in Tucson. His passing leaves a hole in one—a joke, we think, he would have appreciated.

We are saddened to report that Victor Amos Kroninger, Jr. died at age 93 in his home in Blandon on Jan. 10, 2025. He was the son of Rev. Victor Kroninger, the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church when young John Updike attended services and went to Sunday School as a child.

Victor Jr. graduated from Shillington HIgh School a year before Updike, and later attended Muhlenberg College and The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Like his father, he became a minister, serving in parishes in Bethlehem, Pottstown, Philadelphia, and Robesonia. In retirement, he assisted at Ziegels Lutheran Church in Breinigsville.

As his Reading Eagle obituary noted, “In 1994, he received the MVP award from the American Motorcycling Association ‘In recognition of valuable contributions in the interest of motorcycling.’ His joy was to treat seniors to motorcycle mini-rides. His claim to fame was John Updike’s reference to him as ‘the preacher’s son, bombing around town on a motorcycle’ in John’s novel Rabbit, Run. He enjoyed youth ministry and took many teen groups on bicycle overnight ventures . . . notably Lancaster County, Philadelphia, and once with Ziegels youth in Manhattan. In later years, he led his family band, Psalm 150, in singing “A New Song” across two synods.”

Updike Society members who attended the very first conference in Reading may remember Victor Jr. for sharing his memories of his father and John Updike when conference attendees visited Grace Lutheran.

We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife, Jeanean; sons Mark, Matt, and John; three grandchildren; and sister Anne.

With heavy hearts we report that the senior docent of The John Updike Childhood Home, David W. Ruoff, died Jan. 1 at age 83 of congestive heart failure while in hospice care in Ephrata. Dave became a member of The John Updike Society in 2012 after he began renting the single-story annex to The John Updike Childhood Home, back when it was still a deconstruction zone.

From the beginning, though, Dave was more than a renter. He became a great friend to society president James Plath, who traveled from Illinois to Shillington to work on the house several times each year over the course of the decade it took to restore the house to be historically accurate and to create a museum Berks County could be proud of. Dave loved Updike and was willing to help any way he could. He began by receiving items shipped to the society and by giving impromptu tours to people who came to the house, telling them how he grew up on Philadelphia Ave. just two blocks from the Updike house at 117.

Dave loved regaling visitors with stories about Updike’s father, Wesley, whom he had for a teacher, and he loved going the extra mile and giving people who had traveled to Shillington from abroad or great distances samples of Berks County ring bologna and Tom Sturgis pretzels—the latter, Updike’s favorite. Sometimes, if they asked for directions to Plowville, Dave would even drive them . . . after first showing them the Updike sites in Shillington that they might have otherwise missed. And when an alarm would go off in the middle of the night, Dave, one of three people with a key, always volunteered to get his coat and gun and drive over to make sure everything was all right.

Although it takes a village to create a museum that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has a Pennsylvania Historic Marker—a museum that The Wall Street Journal last year called “a worthy site of literary pilgrimage”—Dave was part of a core group most responsible for the museum’s creation and operation. In addition, numerous people over the years have made donations to the society based on their interaction with Dave, whose community pride and passion for Updike was contagious.

The society loved him back. On October 2, 2021, the board honored him as the sixth recipient of The John Updike Society Distinguished Service Award, praising his “extraordinary docent work and other services to The John Updike Childhood Home.” Dave was funny, generous, thoughtful, and a little bit larger than life. He’ll be greatly missed.

The obituary notes that Dave graduated from Gov. Mifflin High School in 1959 as a double athlete (football and wrestling), served in the Army with the 82^nd Airbourne, and was a “proud member of the Special Forces as a Green Beret.” Dave was in the insurance business for 55 years and loved hunting, biking, and spending time with his family. Here is the full obituary, which details where donations can be made.

Our deepest sympathies go to his wife, Maria, daughter Tara, son Jim, grandchildren Zack, Cole and Rayne, great-grandchildren Tanner and Beckett, and all members of the Ruoff extended family.

With heavy hearts we report the death of longtime John Updike Society member Andrew J. Moorhouse, whom many members first met when he attended the society’s second biennial conference in Boston in 2012.

According to a post his family created on his Facebook page, Andrew “died peacefully on Tuesday, September 24, after a year of ill health and a short-lived battle with a secondary CNS lymphoma which took root in his brain.

“Andrew would have used his unique talent with words to craft this message full of beautiful allegories, imagery and metaphors but sadly we have neither his brains nor his brilliance.

“Many will know Andrew through his Facebook and social media, which he used to connect with like-minded people across the world. Andrew was a generous and loving husband, father, brother and friend. As well as a loyal Dale fan. He will be greatly missed.”

Updike Society members will certainly miss him. Andrew was a gentle and quiet force of nature who, members may recall, was fresh off of a kidney transplant when he talked about becoming a fine letterpress edition publisher of poetry. As he told Body online literary magazine in 2021,

“I have always been a keen reader. My favorite authors generally are American novelists but also British poets. A collector too. I like beautifully printed and bound signed, limited editions. I collected John Updike’s books—it was Updike who said: ‘a book is beautiful in its relation to the human hand, its relation to the human eye, to the human brain, and to the human spirit.’ I felt the same way.”

Inspired by Updike and Updike small-press limited edition publisher William Ewert, Andrew contacted UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, whose work he collected, asking if he’d be interested in working with him to produce fine press editions of his works. Armitage was interested, and in October 2013, Andrew started Fine Press Poetry and officially became a small press publisher with his first book, In Memory of Water, poems by Armitage. Many more books followed.

Andrew was indeed an insightful reader of Updike who could talk about Updike’s books on the same level as any Ph.D. or much-published scholar. He was interesting and intelligent and a delight to be around. The John Updike Society is poorer without him, and we offer our condolences to his family: Rosie, Rebecca, and James. He made the world a better place.

Dorothy Huber, who lived next door to The John Updike Childhood Home and was a wonderful neighbor during the 10 years that the society owned the property, died peacefully at age 92 on April 28, 2024.

Dorothy was a dynamic individual who worked as an office manager and accountant until she was 85. She also devoted much of her time to charity work, including service as a past president of the Reading Soroptimist International professional business women’s organization and as a member of the Berks County Prison Society where, according to her obituary, she “brought the Word of God to incarcerated individuals. Her impact was amazing, lives were changed, and the success stories made her smile; she saw this as a highlight in her life’s work.”

Dorothy also kept an eye on the Updike property and looked forward to visits from society president James Plath when he traveled from Illinois to Shillington to work on the house. The feeling was mutual. “Just about every trip included an hour or two at Dorothy’s, talking about this and that,” Plath said. “She was also very interested in Updike and the progress that we were making on the museum.”

Updike’s Shillington contact, Dave Silcox, was even closer, regularly checking on  Dorothy and bringing dinners on special occasions. It was during one of those visits with Silcox that Dorothy asked if the society would have any interest in buying an elaborate carved sideboard that came out of Clint Shilling’s house. The answer was yes.

Mrs. Updike paid Shilling to give her son art lessons when he was only five years old, so the Updike connection was a great interest. It turned out that Dorothy and Shilling were good friends, and she was told that she could take what she wanted after he passed away. She took the sideboard but also rescued a lot of Shilling’s paint scoops and brushes and some of the artwork as well.

The society bought the sideboard and many of the Shilling items from her, and they now are on display in the museum. The sideboard especially is a unique item that young John Updike would have seen when he crossed the street to take lessons from Shilling. Sometimes Shilling conducted lessons on the Updikes’ side porch, while other times young Johnny went to Shilling’s house. The sideboard meant a lot to Huber, but it meant even more to her that people would continue to enjoy it in the museum next door to her house.

Always smiling and cheerful, Dorothy had what sounds like a cliché: a perpetual twinkle in her eyes. She loved life, loved people, and loved helping people. She was a good neighbor and friend who will be deeply missed. The society offers its heartfelt condolences to Dorothy’s son, daughter, and grandchildren.

We’re saddened to report the passing of Myrtle Council, an avid and knowledgeable local historian who was an honored guest at the grand opening of The John Updike Childhood Home in October 2021. She was 99.

Myrtle was a 1941 graduate of Shillington High School, and after serving in the Navy WAVES during WWII she worked at the Reading Eagle-Times, Jacobs Aircraft Engineering Co., and Edelman’s Law Office in Reading.

But Berks County knew her mostly from her extensive volunteerism and advocacy for the preservation of local history. The list of organizations she served is almost as long as her rich life. She was a member of the National Parliamentarians Association, the American Institute of Parliamentarians, Berks Unit of PAP, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the PA Federation of Women’s Clubs, Southeastern District of PFWC, Berks County Federation of Women’s Clubs, Women’s Club of Shillington, Federation of Past Presidents Club, and the Shillington/Mifflin Alumni Association, frequently serving as president or a board member of those organizations. She was also a lifetime member of the Immanuel UCC, Shillington, where she was a youth group leader, Altar Guild Chairman, founder/leader of the Shawl Ministry for 10 years, and a kitchen helper.

Her intersecting interests of Shillington High School, John Updike, and local history and its preservation led her to take an active role in passing on archival materials that the Shillington/Mifflin Alumni Association had acquired to the John Updike Childhood Home, where some items could be displayed and others catalogued and safely protected for the future. Items currently at the house museum—including Shillington H.S. pennants, pins, hats, athletic letters, and a student handbook—are on display because of Myrtle’s vision and dedication to preserving local history for future generations to understand and appreciate.

Inurnment, with full military honors, will take place in Fairview Cemetery, 375 New Holland Ave., Shillington, at 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2023. A celebration of life service will follow at 11 a.m. at Immanuel United Church of Christ, 99 S. Waverly St., Shillington. The family will receive friends immediately following services in the church fellowship hall.

Contributions in memory of Myrtle Council can be made to Immanuel UCC at the above address. Here is a link to the obituary where memories can be shared.

The society sends its deepest sympathies to Myrtle’s daughter, Elizabeth, and to the rest of the family. Myrtle will be missed, but her work lives on.

The society is saddened to report that Martha Ruggles (Bernhard) Updike died Monday, October 9, at the age of 85. Below is the obituary written by her sons from her first marriage, as well as an announcement sent to parishioners by Emmanuel Church in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. She is pictured here on the steps of another church—Grace Lutheran, in Shillington, Pa.—in a photo taken by society member David Silcox.

Martha Ruggles (Bernhard) Updike, previously of Beverly Farms, MA, died on October 9 2023 in New York City at the age of 85 after suffering from dementia for several years. She was the widow of the author John Updike to whom she had been married for over 30 years when he died in 2009. Her previous marriage to Alexander Bernhard ended in divorce in 1974. Martha is predeceased by her parents Margaret Ruggles and Frederic Stanboro Ruggles and her brother Keith Ridgeway Ruggles. Born in Chicago in 1937, Martha was raised in Fairfield Connecticut before attending Cornell University and later obtaining her Masters in Education from Harvard University in 1964 and her Masters in Social Work from Simmons College in 1988. She subsequently worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston as a social worker in their inpatient psychiatric unit. A long-time resident of Boston’s North Shore, Martha was a member of Myopia Hunt Club and at the time of her death the Chilton Club. Martha was passionate about gardening, holding several positions with the Garden Club of America throughout her lifetime and was involved in numerous organizations including the Holland Dames, the Huguenot Society of America and the Mayflower Society. Martha was known for her no- nonsense Yankee approach to life and people, her work and her gardens. Her greatest happiness was the life she shared with her late husband John. Martha is survived by her four stepchildren, Liz Updike Cobblah, David Updike, Michael Updike and Miranda Updike, and three sons from her first marriage, John H. Bernhard II, Jason Ruggles Bernhard and Frederic (Ted) Ridgeway Bernhard. A memorial service will be held at a future date in Manchester MA.

The society extends its deepest sympathies to John, Jason, and Ted Bernhard, and to the stepchildren and grandchildren.

Former multi-sport athlete Richard “Dick” Rhoda died June 12, 2023 at the age of 92. Born in Shillington, he was the son of textile mill worker William “Wit” Rhoda and hospital administrator Kathryn Long.

At Shillington High School, Rhoda was on the varsity football, basketball, track, and swim teams. John Updike’s father, Wesley, coached the swim team and was an assistant coach on the football team, and Rhoda’s son, Jeff, recalled his father telling him that a “classmate, John Updike, would stop by his family home with his father to help count the concession stand proceeds after games.”

“My father had a Huck Finn childhood,” Jeff Rhoda said. “He hunted with his father and trapped muskrats before school and then sold them for 10 cents each.” The younger Rhoda also said his father “grew up in Amish country and enjoyed his scrapple and shoofly pie.” He added, “My parents rarely missed a happy hour at the end of the day. My father had a daily cigar.”

Rhoda later attended Albright College, where he was the starting point guard on the basketball team, after which he received a degree in pharmacy from Philadelphia Pharmaceutical (later Philadelphia College of the Sciences). He worked as a pharmacist for most of his life, and also coached youth football in his community. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Irene McLaughlin, a retired Baltimore County Library administrator; two sons, Rich Rhoda of Centerville, Ohio and Jeff Rhoda of Baltimore; a daughter, Sharon Hovde of Madison, Wis.; six grandchildren and six great grandchildren. The John Updike Society offers their condolences.

A life celebration will be held August 8 on what would have been the couple’s 70^th wedding anniversary at a location to be announced.

Read the full obituary. 

A remarkable Berks County woman died on May 16, 2023. Ellen Lou Gallagher (Brownmiller) was a beloved teacher who touched many lives, but she was also a student, artist, musician, playwright, quilter, and “almost an astronaut when she was a Pennsylvania finalist for the Teacher in Space program in 1985,” according to her obituary.

Her son, Drew Gallagher, told The John Updike Society that Ellen had “three organizations that were very dear to her and one was the Updike Childhood Home.” In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be made to those three organizations: The Reading Symphony, The John Updike Childhood Home, or The Kurt Vonnegut Museum. “Or simply read a favorite book or listen to a show tune in her honor. Try to remember when love was an ember about to billow. When everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. And so it goes.”

Born in West Reading on July 1, 1941, Gallagher graduated from Millersville State with a degree in education and added a Master’s degree from Temple University years later. “Ultimately she landed at Lorane Elementary School in Exeter as a fifth grade teacher. Her students will remember the annual incubation projects, waiting for the chicks to hatch in the classroom, and they will not forget learning what a million something looked like when they collected that many aluminum can pull tabs over many more school years than anticipated. There was a large ceremony at Lorane to commemorate the millionth pull tab and photos were taken and published in The Reading Eagle [where her late husband, Charles Gallagher, was longtime editor] before the tabs were recycled.”

Gallagher spent summer 1981 teaching children on the island of Majuro in the Marshall Islands and was an inspiration for a character in the young adult novel Me and Marvin Gardens, written by one of her former students, A.S. King.

Perhaps most remarkably, when she retired she had two goals: “learn to quilt and to play the violin. She was successful at both. As a member of the Reading Philharmonic Orchestra, she played the violin until she was unable and then became the narrator for their concerts up until her death.”

The John Updike Society is touched that a person who loomed so large in so many lives thought enough of John Updike and our little childhood home museum to name us as a donation beneficiary. Even in death, she continues to make a difference and set an example. Our deepest sympathies go out to her sons Drew and Thomas, her daughter Julie Stern, and their families.