Ruth Gruber: Writer, humanitarian, centenarian and friend

Mel and Cindy Yoken with Ruth Gruber.

My wife, Cindy, and I often sojourn in New York City, and every time we go there, we visit our dear, inimitable, self-effacing friend Ruth Gruber, who is now 104 1/2 years old. 

Thanks to a lifetime of writing, photojournalism, teaching, humanitarian missions and a thoughtful vision, she has touched the lives of more people than she can possibly imagine. Our recent visit with Ruth was a memorable one indeed. Inside her commodious, elegant apartment overlooking Central Park, we sat with our beloved heroine, who looked absolutely beautiful. She wore a purple dress, purple socks, and a long, gold necklace, and her makeup made her face look smooth and healthy.

She retained an angelic smile – one which still radiates enthusiasm and vitality - for nearly three hours as we expatiated on many subjects. To wit: We reminisced about Virginia Woolf, since Ruth wrote her doctoral thesis on this illustrious English writer. At age 20, in 1931, Ruth became the youngest person in the world to earn her Ph.D., and was acclaimed as such at that time.

When we noted that she was probably the only person still alive who had actually met and interacted with Woolf, Ruth smiled and exulted: “She was such a lovely person and so attractive.” 

We spoke to Ruth about her wonderful and fulfilling life, bringing the children of Holocaust refugees from Italy to Oswego, New York, in 1944, and also how she brought children to Israel in 1947. She wrote a book, “Haven,” which was later a movie, about the first experience, during which she worked as a special assistant for U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who later made Ruth a general. It was in this important capacity that she went to Italy to bring 985 children to the U.S. on the transport ship Henry Gibbons. Ruth wrote “Exodus 47” about the latter experience, a veritable apogee in her eventful life and work. We also spoke about her early book, “They Came to Stay,” which she wrote with Marjorie Margolies Mezinsky, Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law.

Ruth’s apartment is filled from ceiling to floor with books, many signed and inscribed personally to her, as she has always been a voracious reader. From a young age, she relished the classics, and Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” was always one of her books of predilection.

Ruth’s peripatetic nature took her to the Sorbonne, in Paris, to ameliorate her French. When she arrived in Germany in 1931, she was a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.  Hitler’s troops were marching through the streets, and she happened to be in the crowd when Hitler addressed a Nazi rally in Cologne. She was, of course, horrified by this experience, which left an indelible mark in her mind.

Ruth was the first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic, in 1935, and she traveled to Alaska as a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration in 1942. She covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946, and has known and associated with such world leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt, David Ben Gurion and Harry Truman, to name just a few.

We talked about all the aforementioned with Ruth, and about the film of her extraordinary life and work, “Ahead of Time,” which had its debut at the Walter Reade Theater, in New York City, on Jan. 14, 2010.  This remarkable, fascinating documentary was based on Ruth’s book of the same title. We were there at the screening, and so proud of our longtime friend, who never allowed any obstacles to stop her from accomplishing her transformative goals.

Our friendship with Ruth began as correspondence some 33 years ago, shortly after the publication of “Haven.” Over the years, we have hosted her a few times in this region, as she has been a guest speaker at Brown University and The Center of Jewish Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Ruth Gruber’s amazing experiences are limitless, and her prodigious efforts throughout her long and fruitful life demonstrate the potential that all of us share to bring about positive change and improve the lives of others.

MEL B. YOKEN is Chancellor Professor Emeritus of French Language and Literature at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.