Ruth Schmidt

Ruth Anna Marie Schmidt (April 22, 1916 – March 29, 2014) was an American geologist and paleontologist who was a pioneer for women scientists. She spent most of her career in Alaska, where she established a United States Geological Survey (USGS) field office and established the first Department of Geology at the Anchorage Community College, now part of the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 1964, Schmidt directed the initial assessment of the damage done to the city of Anchorage by the Great Alaska Earthquake, the largest earthquake in North American history, and the second largest earthquake ever to be recorded. She worked for the USGS in Washington, DC during the era of McCarthyism and was investigated twice for disloyalty because of her membership in the interracial Washington Cooperative Bookshop. She was cleared both times. She earned a number of awards, honors, and letters of commendation and appreciation. After her death in 2014, she was recognized as a philanthropist.

Early life and education The Yorktown Formation, well known for its fossils, which Schmidt studied in graduate school at Columbia University. Schmidt was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916. She graduated from Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, and then attended the Washington Square College of New York University 1932–1936, during the height of the Great Depression. Her family encouraged the Schmidt siblings to obtain degrees in higher education, and all of her siblings, including three sisters and one brother, earned college degrees in the 1920s. and was celebrated in the school newspaper as "crazy about fossils." with New York University Professor H. H. Sheldon. To earn money for graduate school, Schmidt competed with 84 other candidates to win a $500 fellowship from New York City Panhellenic to conduct advanced study of the application of radiography to paleontology.

Career Schmidt was a pioneer for women in the sciences throughout her career. She taught science and military map-making. Her membership in this organization, which was branded as communist by U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark in 1947, Her passports bear the stamps of two dozen countries, including Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, the Falkland Islands, Finland, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). She also traveled across the United States, and lived in several states as part of her work for the USGS. Schmidt traveled extensively throughout Alaska too, and crossed the Arctic Circle numerous times both in Alaska and elsewhere. postponing the completion of her doctoral dissertation until 1948. She worked in various positions for the USGS until 1963. Beginning in 1948, and continuing through 1950, Schmidt worked for the top secret Military Geology Unit of the USGS, that had been instituted by President Harry Truman through Executive Order 9835.

From 1950 to 1952, Schmidt worked for the Geological Division of the USGS, organizing the Lexicon Project (map names) in Washington, and the Paleotectonic Map Project in Denver, CO. From 1952 until her departure for Alaska in 1956, she worked for the Mineral Classification Board, cataloging minerals for all US federal lands. indicate that by 1961, Schmidt had become unhappy doing office work for the USGS, and she asked for a transfer to the USGS Oceanography Division alt=photo of the UAA/APU Consortium Library on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage, which houses the Ruth A. M. Schmidt papers collection. The UAA/APU Consortium Library on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage now houses the Ruth A. M. Schmidt papers collection.

University of Alaska Anchorage Schmidt began teaching classes as a part time lecturer and adjunct in 1959 After a harrowing experience finding a way off the ice, which had buckled while the water underneath was churning, she was chosen to lead the Engineering and Geological Evaluation Group, a group of 50 scientists, to assess the areas of damage in Anchorage prior to the start of rebuilding. Hitting Alaska about 5:30 pm The damage was immense. The tsunami that followed devastated coastal communities from Alaska to northern California. indicates that the federal government was not initially involved. On a job application dated 1974, Schmidt indicates that she was the coordinator and the geologist in charge of the project, and that the position ended because the "federal government took over." not the federal government. Friedel also notes that the scientists included geologists, soil scientists, federal and state engineers, and scientists from private companies.

There was significant conflict between Schmidt and the Anchorage Engineering and Geological Evaluation Group that she led and downtown business leaders and real estate developers. Business leaders and developers published angry letters in the Anchorage Times, On a job application dated 1974, she notes that she worked as a "consulting geologist [to] prepare reports on wells from [the] North Slope, Gulf of Alaska, other areas; engineering geology reports, building sites, [and] road construction for clients."

Loyalty hearings

Washington Cooperative Bookshop During the McCarthy era, Schmidt was investigated twice for possible disloyalty to the US government. First page of Executive Order 9835, signed by President Harry S. Truman on March 21, 1947 On December 5, 1947, the Washington Post published a list of organizations that Attorney General Tom C. Clark had branded as subversive and/or communistic. The list came to be known as the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations, or AGLOSO. This was the first time the list was made public, although parts of the original list, compiled in 1943, had previously been leaked. By that time, the Bookshop had closed due to financial pressures caused by the continual harassment by the federal government, but as Schmidt wrote to a friend, "those who were members still have to answer individually the charges against the organization." Schmidt hired an attorney, David Cobb, to represent her. Upon Cobb's suggestion, Schmidt wrote to former professors, graduate school colleagues, friends, and co-workers to request that they submit a notarized affidavit testifying to her integrity, her loyalty to the US government, and her views about communism. There are carbon copies of 17 such letters of request among Schmidt's papers in the UAA/APU Archives and Special Collections. The letter from her dissertation adviser and professor of geology at Columbia University states: "She has always been devoted to her science, geology, and as far as I have been aware not been interested in anything else." Her request for a hearing was accepted, and a three hour hearing occurred on October 25, 1950, chaired by Mastin G. White, a solicitor for the Department of Interior. There were four members of the Loyalty Board present; five witnesses spoke on Schmidt's behalf. At the hearing, Schmidt acknowledged that she had "been a member of and sympathetically associated with the Washington Bookshop Association."

1954 hearing alt=scan of the cover page of the 1954 transcript of the US Department of the Interior Security Hearing Board against Ruth A. M. Schmidt Cover page of the 1954 transcript of the US Department of the Interior Security Hearing Board against Ruth A. M. Schmidt In 1954, Schmidt received another letter from the Department of Interior advising her that she was again being investigated, The letter, dated April 7, 1954, and signed by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Douglas McKay, directed her to respond to charges of membership in a "totalitarian organization"

The Department of Interior Secretary Douglas McKay answered her letter on June 28, 1954: "A review of your answers to charges and supporting documents discloses that your denials and explanations do not constitute sufficient grounds to reinstate you. As a consequence, your request for a hearing on the charges will be granted."

Alaska Audubon: certificate in recognition of outstanding dedication to conservation and 12 years of service as Program Chair of Anchorage Audubon Society, May 21, 1998; President's Award, January 18, 1996 Alaska Center for the Environment: in honor of her work towards the foundation of Alaskan conservation, October 5, 1985 Alaska State Parks Volunteer Service Award, June 4, 1985 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): elected to be a Fellow, May 31, 1968 American Association of Petroleum Geologists: certificate honoring 45 years membership, May 2002; same for 40 years in 1997; same for 25 years 1982 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Anchorage Chapter: Special Certificate of Recognition, October 28, 1994 American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG): certificate to recognize 40 years of service received in 2003; Silber Anniversary Certificate recognizing Schmidt as a Charter member and Emeritus member September 30, 1988 Arctic Institute of North America: elected Fellow, September 23, 1985; life member certificate January 28, 1991 Common Cause: certificate of appreciation and letter from founding chair John W. Gardner, October 13, 1995 Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey Service Award: in recognition of 20 years of service in the Government of the United States, December 31, 1963 Geological Society of America (GSA): elected to be a Fellow, November 16, 1963 Geological Society of America (GSA): 50-year Fellow, October 9, 1996 International Geological Congress: Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Contributions, July 19, 1989, along with letter from Secretary-General Bruce B. Hanshaw President Bill Clinton: letter of thanks for participating in at the Table roundtable discussions on women's issues, July 5, 1996 Public Citizen: certificate of Recognition for Contributing Member (n.d.) Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM): certificate of "Recognition and Appreciation for your Loyalty to SEPM for 60 years of membership", July 22, 2002; certificate honoring the same for 65 years, July 23, 2007 State of Alaska Commendation "for serving the interest of the people of the State of Alaska as a member of the Pipeline Coordinators Office during construction of the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline," signed by Governor Jay Hammond, June 13, 1977 The Living Room Floor Map and Debating Society "informs all Persons that between 1969 and 1972 Ruth Schmidt was a charter member of a group of Alaska Conservation Valiants who diligently pursued and developed the initial major themes for ANCSA [ Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act] Sec. 17d2 land withdrawals and the subsequent Presidential Proclamations for Alaska National Monuments and National Wildlife Refuges," December 1, 1978 Who's Who of American Women, 22nd edition 2000/2001 Millennium Edition Who's Who in Frontier Science and Technology, First Edition, 1984/85

Death and legacy Schmidt retired from teaching in 1984 after 25 years and continued consulting as a geologist until 2000. She suffered from dementia in her later life, and died at the age of 97 on March 29, 2014. In her will, she donated significant funds to 22 charities, most of them located in Alaska. She created the Schmidt Charitable Trust, originally named in honor of her parents, Edward and Anna Range Schmidt, that provides financial assistance for Alaskan students of any age who study earth sciences; special preference is given for Alaska Native students and other ethnic minorities. She donated regularly to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anchorage chapter of the Audubon Society, and to Anchorage area cultural organizations, social service organizations, and to conservation groups. She paid $2000 for the land. By 2012, when Schmidt donated the land to the Great Land Trust, who in turn donated it to the Municipality of Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department, the land was valued at nearly $300,000.

Schmidt was a pioneer for women in the sciences, and acted as an enthusiastic mentor, role model, and colleague for women students. She is credited with laying "the foundation of the geoscience curriculum" at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Schmidt was posthumously inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.