San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Oldest national park ranger retires at 100, but legacy endures
Six months after her 100th birthday, Betty Reid Soskin, the country’s oldest national park ranger, is stepping away from the career that brought her story — and that of countless other underrepresented people — to light.
Soskin retired Thursday from her post at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond after 11 years of leading interactive programs and sharing her personal history and perspective at the park’s visitor center.
A longtime East Bay resident, she began her work with the National Park Service in the early 2000s, participating in meetings with the city of Richmond and the NPS to develop management plans for Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park.
Soskin was hired by the National Park Service at the age of 84 in a temporary role that followed her work with the agency on a grant that was meant to “uncover untold stories” of Black people who worked on the home front during World War II, according to the agency
She became a permanent employee at the park in 2011.
“Being a primary source in the sharing of that history — my history — and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling,” Soskin said in a statement. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
During World War II, Soskin worked as a file clerk in a segregated union hall, and she and her first husband, Mel Reid, opened the music store Reid’s Records in 1945. In her 70s, Soskin worked as a staffer for a member of the Berkeley City Council and for California Assembly Member Dion Aroner, an East Bay Democrat.
Through the stories she told visitors at the national park, Soskin recalled historic moments from across the Bay Area and the country, including Amelia Earhart’s flight and disappearance in 1937, the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in 1939 and the explosion of the ammunition ship at Port Chicago in 1944.
Soskin suffered a stroke in 2019 and returned to work in early 2020. She had been working on and off during the pandemic and recently began hosting hour-long conversations online, allowing her to continue sharing stories from her past.
“The National Park Service is grateful to Ranger Betty for sharing her thoughts and firstperson accounts in ways that span across generations,” said Naomi Torres, acting superintendent of Rosie the Riveter/ WWII Home Front National Historical Park, in a statement. “She has used stories of her life on the Home Front, drawing meaning from those experiences in ways that make that history truly impactful for those of us living today.”