Description
- Abstract:
- In this interview, conducted over fifty years after her graduation, Ruth Sittler, class of 1933, begins by describing her childhood in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and the difficulty of her parents' divorce in 1929. Sittler explains that her older brother graduated from Brown University in 1930 and that she was determined to follow in his footsteps. In 1929, she did just that, matriculating into Pembroke College the same year her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island. Sittler majored in economics and notes that for beginning level and required courses, professors such as Benjamin Brown and Thomas Crosby commuted to the Pembroke campus to teach. She recalls taking courses with Magel Wilder, Will Taylor, and James Shoemaker. She also fondly remembers her encounters with Bessie Rudd, Director of Physical Education, and Dean Margaret Shove Morriss and Dean Eva Mooar. Beyond her scholastic memories, Sittler describes social life on campus including fraternity parties and the extracurricular activities that she participated in such as the swim and field hockey teams and the Question Club. Sittler also discusses serving as secretary of the Pembroke Student Government during her junior year and then as president in her senior year. Throughout the interview, Sittler talks about financial and employment difficulties that were prevalent during the Great Depression with examples of rent, food costs, and restricted job opportunities. The latter portion of the interview is spent discussing Sittler's life after graduation. She references her paraprofessional work in social work and obtaining her master's degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. Sittler thoroughly recounts the two years she spent in France as a Field Director for the Red Cross during World War II and explains the psychological difficulties that she had after returning home from the war. She concludes the interview by relating how she found her job at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the courses she takes in her retirement through Harvard's continuing education program, Institute for Learning in Retirement. In addition to this interview, the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive also holds coursework of Ruth Sittler's that is available for research through the University Archives of Brown University.
- Notes:
- Class year: 1933
- Biographical note: Ruth Sittler, the second of three children, grew up in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. After her parents divorced in 1929, she, her mother, and her siblings, moved to Providence, Rhode Island. Sittler graduated from Pembroke College in 1933 with an A.B. in economics. After working as a governess and at Scruggs Vandervoort and Barney Department Store, she para-professionally pursued social work in programs under the Emergency Relief Act and subsequently obtained her master's degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. During World War II, Sittler spent two years in France as a Field Director for the Red Cross and earned a position as a social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston shortly after returning home. In retirement, she maintained her passion for learning and took continuing education courses at Harvard\u2019s Institute for Learning in Retirement. Sittler died on November 1, 2003.
Citation
"Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933"
(1987).
Pembroke Center Oral History Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:712979/
Relations
Has Parts:
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 1
- Type: Audio
- Order: 1
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 1
- Type: Stream
- Order: 1
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 2
- Type: Audio
- Order: 2
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 2
- Type: Stream
- Order: 2
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 3
- Type: Audio
- Order: 3
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933 Part 3
- Type: Stream
- Order: 3
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Ruth Estella Sittler, class of 1933
- Type: Pdf
- Order: 4
Collection:
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Pembroke Center Oral History Collection
This collection contains oral history interviews with alumnae of Brown University, which admitted its first women students in 1891. The Women's College at Brown was renamed Pembroke College in 1928, and in 1971, Pembroke College merged with the Men's College …...