Norma De Rubeis Rusch

Norma De Rubeis Rusch (August 26, 1925, Hurley – December 7, 2025, Brighton, Mass.) was a tap and ballet dancer, musician, and Spanish teacher.

Norma’s greatest influences in life were three teachers: Lilian Ladin (piano), Leatha Hillis (dance), and Harriet Strauss (high school Latin). As a child she performed frequently in the area especially at the Ironwood Theatre where she sang and danced.

She graduated from Hurley High School in 1943, attended Gogebic Community College for a year, and transferred to the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis where she majored in Latin American Studies and graduated magna cum laude in 1947.

The summer of 1947, she participated in a foreign study trip to Spain. On board the ship to Europe, her Spanish teacher was Francisco García Lorca, the brother of the author Federico García Lorca. The director of her program in Spain was Saul Bellow, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Using Madrid as her base, she traveled a country in shambles from the trauma of a civil war, but became enthralled with the culture and her wanderlust was born.

Norma crossed the Atlantic 30 times visiting Europe. She also traveled to Bali, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. After retiring, she spent many winters in Tucson where she played piano for a mandolin orchestra. Her last trip was to Spain at the age of 93.

In 1947, upon returning from Spain, she went to New York City in search of life. She worked at the Institute of International Education. She came back to Wisconsin and worked as a substitute English teacher in Hurley and then went to Minocqua High School where she taught English and introduced Spanish to the curriculum. When Lakeland Union High School was formed in 1957, she became the Spanish teacher there. Norma retired in 1985.

Norma enjoyed learning and took many courses in the U.S. and abroad. She received one of three national Charles E. Merrill Scholarships for the 1963-64 academic year to go to Spain. During the summers of 1973 and 1974, she earned her MA at the University of Salamanca in collaboration with the University of Virginia and was awarded a scholarship from Delta Kappa Gamma to help finance her studies.

Norma was a member and state-level officer of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and the Wisconsin Association of Foreign Language Teachers. The Spanish program at LUHS was recognized as being one of the best in the state by the Department of Public Instruction. During her last year of teaching, she was on the state committee that wrote A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Foreign Languages for Wisconsin. 

As a teacher, Norma coached forensics and tennis, directed plays, and ran the Spanish Club. The club raised money for scholarships for students to attend Concordia Language Camp and to travel abroad. She put on Fiestas with her students, programs of primarily song and dance, and proceeds went towards scholarships. She also brought Spanish students to the Lakeland area for summer homestays and for the academic year.

In 1976, in recognition of her work promoting the Spanish language and culture in Wisconsin, the Spanish government gave her their highest award for foreigners, Dame of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.

Besides her numerous accomplishments, many may remember what happened during the Minocqua Centennial Parade. At the age of 63, she did a cartwheel, then more, and even more all the way down the street. 

Norma spent the last four-and-a-half years of her life in the Chestnut Park memory unit where a loving, multinational, and multilingual staff attended to her as if she their own mother.

Dame Norma or Cartwheel Norma (your choice) is survived by her daughter Debbie Rusch, retired Spanish coordinator at Boston College and textbook author. She was preceded in death by her husband Les Rusch who owned the 5 & 10 in Minocqua, her mother Delia (Varda) De Rubeis, her father Peter De Rubeis, her aunt Rose (Varda) Bertone, and her uncle Victor Bertone.

There will be a Memorial Service at her assisted living Dec.19 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and there will be a Celebration of Life in Minocqua next summer.

In memory of this Hurley girl, please send a donation to the Ironwood Theatre at 113 E. Aurora Street, Ironwood, MI 49938, online at www.ironwoodtheatre.net, or by calling 906-932-0618. Alternatively, you may consider a donation to the Foundation for Advancement of Haitian Midwives, many of Norma’s loving caregivers were from Haiti. Their website is www.fahminc.com.