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RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS
1900 - 1963
Ruth Humphrey Ellis was born on November ll, 1900, in Ansonia,
Connecticut. She was a Yankee, and proud of it: she liked to
tell of her father's farm and of the many miles she walked to
school as a girl. Working in a factory, she earned the money
to go to Wellesley, from where she graduated in 1924. She pre-
served a dedicated attachment to her College throughout her life:
few of her friends at Vassar have failed to swell the coffers of
our sister college by buying the wrappings and ribbons which Ruth
brandished every year at Christmas time.
She took her first teaching position at the Connecticut College
for Women, where she arrived on horseback, asking feed and shelter
for her mount. But soon she decided to continue her own education
and entered the University of Illinois as a graduate student and
teaching assistant. There she earned a Master's Degree in 1928
and a Ph.D. in 1930. In that same year she came to Vassar as an
instructor, and here she taught until, after 33 years, she died
where she had spent so many hours of her life: in the midst of a
busy freshman laboratory.
Ruth Ellis studied biochemistry when it was a young science, -
still, indeed, called physiological chemistry, - and concerned
itself largely with nutrition. Her dissertation dealt with the
essential amino acids. After she came to Vassar, the Sanders
Chemistry Laboratory was the inhospitable home of rats who strug-
gled along on deficient diets while she directed two students in
their research for a Master's Degree.
In 1953-55, Ruth Ellis spent two years organizing the undergraduate
chemistry program at the Women's Christian College in Madras.
She fell in love with India, and this love grew into a more gen-
eral concern for the people of Asia and Africa in their struggle
for political and economic independence. As a teacher, the stu-
dents of these countries were especially close to Ruth's heart,
and many of them found a warm welcome in her home. But she also
almost single-handedly created the Mid-Hudson International Center
for professional and businessmen and women from far lands. Nor
did she close her eyes to problems near by: she worked with the
NAACP for fair housing practices in Poughkeepsie.
These many and demanding activities became the central concern
in her life, and she was happily at work in them on the morning
of her last day. She started and ran committees as the price of
RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS (Continued)
progress, but she was still a Yankee: working as an individual
for the welfare of other individuals. She was certain that most
of the problems of the world grew from ignorance, and that if
people but knew more about each other, these problems would be
lessened or dissolved. To her, education was everything, - and
everything was education.
Marjorie Crawford
Elizabeth King
Curt W. Beck, Chairman
XVI 106
1900 - 1963
Ruth Humphrey Ellis was born on November ll, 1900, in Ansonia,
Connecticut. She was a Yankee, and proud of it: she liked to
tell of her father's farm and of the many miles she walked to
school as a girl. Working in a factory, she earned the money
to go to Wellesley, from where she graduated in 1924. She pre-
served a dedicated attachment to her College throughout her life:
few of her friends at Vassar have failed to swell the coffers of
our sister college by buying the wrappings and ribbons which Ruth
brandished every year at Christmas time.
She took her first teaching position at the Connecticut College
for Women, where she arrived on horseback, asking feed and shelter
for her mount. But soon she decided to continue her own education
and entered the University of Illinois as a graduate student and
teaching assistant. There she earned a Master's Degree in 1928
and a Ph.D. in 1930. In that same year she came to Vassar as an
instructor, and here she taught until, after 33 years, she died
where she had spent so many hours of her life: in the midst of a
busy freshman laboratory.
Ruth Ellis studied biochemistry when it was a young science, -
still, indeed, called physiological chemistry, - and concerned
itself largely with nutrition. Her dissertation dealt with the
essential amino acids. After she came to Vassar, the Sanders
Chemistry Laboratory was the inhospitable home of rats who strug-
gled along on deficient diets while she directed two students in
their research for a Master's Degree.
In 1953-55, Ruth Ellis spent two years organizing the undergraduate
chemistry program at the Women's Christian College in Madras.
She fell in love with India, and this love grew into a more gen-
eral concern for the people of Asia and Africa in their struggle
for political and economic independence. As a teacher, the stu-
dents of these countries were especially close to Ruth's heart,
and many of them found a warm welcome in her home. But she also
almost single-handedly created the Mid-Hudson International Center
for professional and businessmen and women from far lands. Nor
did she close her eyes to problems near by: she worked with the
NAACP for fair housing practices in Poughkeepsie.
These many and demanding activities became the central concern
in her life, and she was happily at work in them on the morning
of her last day. She started and ran committees as the price of
RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS (Continued)
progress, but she was still a Yankee: working as an individual
for the welfare of other individuals. She was certain that most
of the problems of the world grew from ignorance, and that if
people but knew more about each other, these problems would be
lessened or dissolved. To her, education was everything, - and
everything was education.
Marjorie Crawford
Elizabeth King
Curt W. Beck, Chairman
XVI 106
