Ruth Ella Fish was born May 13, 1897 in the Stillwater area to Wilder Warren Fish and Olive Ella Fish, both of pioneer California families. She was the third of five children; a brother just older than she died at one year. After her father died when Ruth was seven years old, her eleven-year-old brother assumed responsiblitity for the family farm and her mother returned to teaching when Ruth was nine.
Ruth attended one-room schools north of Redding. Possibly she attended the schools her mother taught because State School money was allotted according to attendance and trustees were anxious that teachers bring their children.
Ruth graduated from Shasta Union High School on Placer Street in Redding in 1914 and from University of California, Berkeley in 1918, less than one month after her twenty-first birthday.
After college, Ruth went to South America as a missionary teacher and from 1923 to 1931 she served as principal of Frou Inge School in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Her next teaching assignment was the Drew's Coaching School in San Francisco. Her mother lived in the City with her unti1 1945 when both returned to Shasta County so Ruth could accept a teaching position at Shasta Union High School.
During the Fall of 1945, Ruth started organizing Alpha Beta Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Sorority, for women involved in education. She belonged to Hiawatha Parlor 140 of Native Daughters of the Golden West, the Shasta Historical Society and the Welcome Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, Number 17 of Shasta.
She retired from teaching in 1962 and moved to the Retired Teacher's Home at Ojai.
Ruth passed away July 4, 1982. After cremation, her remains were interred in the Fish Family Plot in Redding.
Source: Shasta Historical Society - February 13, 1988
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