Lewis Clarence Ruark; Ex-Attorney and Author

Former Ventura lawyer Lewis Clarence Ruark, also an avid poet and dramatist, died Sept. 10 in a hospice of complications from AIDS. He was 50.

Ruark, an unpublished author who used the pen name Matthew Garrison, was born May 19, 1945, in Hammonton, N.J. He moved to Ventura County three years ago.

He was an Air Force reservist during the Vietnam War era and graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School. He married in 1967, opened a law firm and had two children. He later divorced and, about a decade ago, moved to the West Coast, where he worked as a seller of law books in Oregon and then as an attorney in Los Angeles and Ventura.

After being diagnosed with HIV several years ago, Ruark ended his professional career, having last worked for the law firm of Bolte, Crisp, Tseng & Ramey in Ventura.

Ruark was a prayer minister with the Unity Church of Ventura, where he also sang in the choir. He was also active in the Focus Group at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and Spiritual Questing group at AIDS Care Inc.

A poet and dramatist, he wrote extensively about his experiences as a gay man, his love for his children and coming to terms with AIDS.

His hobbies included collecting miniature zebra figurines and paraphernalia, playing golf, old cars, gospel music, roller-skating and water sports.

He is survived by his son, Brian Ruark of Claremont; his daughter, Jewelyn Nice of New Orleans; his mother, Virginia Ruark, of Soudertown, Pa.; his brothers, Lawrence Ruark of Framingham, Mass., Walter Ruark of Augusta, Me., Lynn Ruark of Portland, Ore., Ronald Ruark of Central City, Neb., and James Ruark, of Grand Rapids, Mich.; and his sisters, Dorothy Engstrom, of Soudertown, Pa., Dollyann Ruark, of Minneapolis, and Donna Ruark, of Portland, Ore.

Memorial services will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Church of Religious Science in Ventura. A reception is scheduled at Christopher House immediately after the service.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Christopher House, the Ventura hospice where Ruark spent the last months of his life.

Arrangements are under the direction of Guardian Memorial Funeral Directors of Ventura County.