It’s been a hell of a career for Betty Reid Soskin. She retired as a National Park Service ranger last week at the age of 100. She was named California Legislature Woman of the Year in 1995, has a Bay Area middle school named for her, and in 2015, she met and introduced President Barack Obama at the White House’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony. For years she’s ran tours at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif. “I’ve lived lots and lots of lives,” she told an interviewer in 2014.
Soskin, or Ranger Betty, as colleagues called her, was an invaluable voice speaking foe the Black experience in WWII—a contrast to Rosie the Riveter, the white, bandana-wearing heroine of the wartime manufacturing sector.
“To be a part of helping to mark the place where that dramatic trajectory of my own life, combined with others of my generation, will influence the future by the footprints we’ve left behind has been incredible,” said Soskin in a prepared statement from the NPS.
Soskin was instrumental in bringing the Rosie the Riveter monument to Richmond, a port city in the Bay Area that was once a shipbuilding hub. She was so respected by the NPS brass that they brought her on board in a temporary role when she was 84 years old, then elevated her to full-time ranger status.
A celebration of her career will be held at the historical center on April 16.
Thank you Ranger Soskin for your important public service! Congratulations on a vibrant 100 years! Bet you have some hellacious stories… off the record.
National Park Rangers are vastly underrated for the often dangerous jobs they do.
They are underpaid, understaffed, underfunded for decades now, and disrespected by idiots (they are law enforcement and packing).
One such hero was Mount Rainier National Park Ranger Margaret Anderson, who gave the ultimate sacrifice, saving many lives ten years, three months and three days ago, mowed down by an extremely violent insane criminal with an A-15.
She stepped up, putting herself between a known hazard and the visitors frolicking on New Year’s Day further up the mountain.
https://bja.ojp.gov/program/badgeofbravery/recipients/2012/margaret-anderson
I’ve seen Rangers with bloodshot eyes working weeks in a row in heavy smoke, with college degrees expected to clean bathrooms for rude visitors, getting lip from alpine meadow stompers and doing three people’s jobs.
How they stay so pleasant and welcoming is an incredible feat! <3 <3 <3
These Rangers are truly National Heroes! Deep gratitude.
Thank you Betty. You are a inspiration to all the shepherds of the land.
Thank you for this tribute and mini-history of Ranger Soskin’s years of public service! She is an American hero!