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Ruth Waldo Newhall
She did some graduate work at Cal, then eloped to Reno to marry Scott Newhall '36, who would carve out his own celebrity in the world of journalism. With Scott, she not only took on assorted roles in the newspaper business, but partnered with him in their travel and hobbies. They acquired a 42-foot ketch intending to sail around the world, but a boatwreck stranded them in Mexico. They spent months riding horses until Scott was kicked by one. They hastily returned to San Francisco, where an infection forced the amputation of his leg. In the 1930s, Ruth and Scott were both hired by the Chronicle. She started as a secretary and was later assigned to cover the East Bay, with the University and the Berkeley police department at the core of her beat. Among her outstanding stories was the return of American prisoners-of-war to Travis Air Force Base. She was there, too, when the bitter controversy broke out over requiring a loyalty oath for the UC faculty. She taught journalism at both Cal and Mills College, and soon turned her hand to a number of histories of prominent California businesses, including Folger's Coffee and the Newhall Land and Farming Co., a giant landowner in the Newhall family. Our paths soon crossed again when my wife Sue and I moved to Berkeley. Our house was located at the base of a sparsely-settled hill rising east from Grizzly Peak Boulevard, on top of which the Newhalls had built their home. The Newhall twins shared birthdays and the freedom of the East Bay hills with our sons. And Sue and Ruth launched their long and neighborly friendship. In the '60s and '70s, Ruth and Scott moved to Piru (Ventura County) in what the local newspaper described as "a turreted old Victorian mansion... a home with lavish gardens where the couple hosted numerous endless charity and social events." They also acquired the Newhall Signal. A former city editor there told the Contra Costa Times: "Scott was the swashbuckling showman, but Ruth was really the glue that held the newspaper together. She bred a kind of family atmosphere." The Newhalls gave up the Signal in a stock dispute. In its place, they started the Citizen, a newspaper with a strong voice much like its predecessor. Ruth was born in Berkeley in 1910. In grammar school, she had been chosen as a member of the Stanford University study of genius IQs. She served as student body vice president at Berkeley High School. Ruth died November 24. Surviving her are her son Skip, the twins Jon and Tony, and five grandchildren. --Remembered by David F. Selvin '33, labor journalist and historian Rudolph Arvid Peterson
I was fortunate to have him as supporter, counselor, and friend for nearly 30 years. In September 1974, Chancellor Al Bowker suggested to Rudy that he might be interested in the new excavations at Nemea in Greece. We met for lunch on the top floor of the Bank of America Building, and by the end of the meeting Rudy had agreed to fund construction of an archaeological museum at Nemea. What seemed to appeal to him was the fact that Nemea hosted games to which all Greeks could come under the flag of truce--a regularly recurring period of peace with a recognition of common humanity across national lines. The following summer, Rudy and his wife Barbara paid the first of several visits to Nemea. They politely watched our work and expressed interest in our discoveries, but it was clear that their real interest was in the people--the local workmen, the Cal students, and the interactions between them. It was as much this interest in the locals as the gift of the museum that led Rudy to be proclaimed an honorary citizen of Ancient Nemea in 1982. This was at Eastertime and the Petersons seemed especially happy to be dragged from church to church and house to house for two days. During one visit, I had to confess that I had missed the estimate of the total cost of the museum and that more funds would be needed. Rudy responded that he thought it was just as well that I was an academic and not a businessman, but his support continued. Finally, in 1984, the Peterson Museum was dedicated and turned over to the Greek state in the persons of the Minister of Culture Melina Merkouri and Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, an erstwhile professor of economics at Cal. Rudy, Chancellor Mike Heyman, State Senator Nick Petris '43, and dozens of other Cal alums attended the ceremony, along with an unexpected crowd of nearly 4,000 people. Rudy's last visit to Nemea came on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the museum, when he was fulfilling his 90th year. A marble plaque in the museum bears his likeness; his words inscribed there are a source of inspiration: "Each generation of mankind has striven to pass this little planet earth on to their children in a better condition than they found it. The efforts and the aspirations, the successes and the failures, of past generations provide a lamp to guide our steps into the future. Through the long march of mankind, we are one with the people who, lived, labored, and created here. This is the true import of history." Rudy Peterson is survived by his wife Barbara, two children, four stepchildren, and ten grandchildren. He was kind and generous, loyal and open, curious and human, a man of broad vision. It was a privilege to know him and a pleasure to share common goals. --Remembered by Stephen G. Miller, professor of archaeology Margaret Singer
Born in Colorado in 1921, she studied speech therapy at the University of Denver ("you can always get a job in speech therapy," she used to say), where she also earned her Ph.D. in psychology. Interestingly, she also had a brief career as a professional cellist with the Denver Symphony before she moved to Washington D.C., where she worked as a psychologist at Walter Reed Hospital. Her work in psychosomatic medicine there led her to become the first psychologist and the first woman to be elected head of the Society for the Study of Psychosomatic Medicine. Her formative work with American soldiers who had denounced the U.S. after being captured by the Chinese Communists in the Korean War led her to the study of influence techniques that was to span the next 50 years of her career. It was also during the '50s that she began, in collaboration with Lyman Wynne, to study the family dynamics and later the speech patterns of schizophrenics. This work would later win her numerous awards, including twice being nominated for a Nobel Prize. She counseled thousands of people at her kitchen table and spoke to thousands more whose family members had been taken by cults (she often did this pro bono). She helped authorities and victims understand the Peoples Temple, Branch Davidian, and Symbionese Liberation Army cults. After testifying as a brainwashing expert in the trial of Patty Hearst, Dr. Singer became a frequent consultant, for prosecutors as well as defendants, in more than 200 cases involving cults and influence techniques. Both legal minds and the press loved her eloquent, clear-headed statements. Her 1995 study, Cults in Our Midst, was updated earlier this year with an analysis of the connection between cults and terrorism. Her study of cults required much personal bravery. She received many threatening messages, including dead rats left in her house with a clear intimation of what would happen to her if she did not desist from her efforts. These never deterred her from trying to protect individuals from cults who prayed upon the lonely, needy individuals who fell into their grip. Unpretentious, inventive, and determined, there will never be another one like Margaret. Ever. --Remembered by Daniel Goldstine '62, Ph.D.'70,
Berkeley Therapy Institute |
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