Sister Mary Ruth Hill, C.S.J., a Sister of St. Joseph, Brentwood, L.I., for 79 years, died in Bishop Kearney Convent, Feb. 29.

Baptized Elizabeth, she entered the congregation in 1937 from the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows, Corona, and received the name Sister Mary Ruth.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences from Catholic University, Puerto Rico, she earned a master’s in Spanish from Middlebury College, Vt. She was later certified in gerontology from Jewish Hospital, NY and St. Thomas Aquinas, River Forest, Ill.

She taught at Holy Name, Park Slope, 1938-39; Transfiguration, Williamsburg, 1939-41; St. Anne, Brentwood, 1941-42; St. Malachy Home, Rockaway Park, 1942-43; St. Malachy, East New York, 1943-47; St. Martin of Tours, Bushwick, 1947-52; Colegio San Conrado, Puerto Rico, 1952-58; St. Joachim, Cedarhurst, L.I., 1958-59; Epiphany, Williamsburg, 1959-61; and Our Lady of Lourdes, Bushwick, 1961-63.

On the secondary level, she served at St. Joseph H.S., Downtown Brooklyn, 1963-65; Sacred Heart Academy H.S., Hempstead, 1965-71; The Mary Louis Academy, Jamaica Estates, 1969-71; and Bishop Kearney H.S., Bensonhurst, 1971-73.

She studied geriatrics at Jewish Hospital Medical Center, 1973-74, before ministering for several years at St. Charles Borromeo, Brooklyn Heights, 1974-85.

In 1985, she began serving as an advisor to the elderly at St. Philip Neri, Northport, L.I., until her retirement in 1994.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Athanasius Church, Bensonhurst. Burial was in Calvary Cemetery, Brentwood.