Betty Reid Soskin, who was the National Park Service’s oldest energetic ranger when she retired at age 100, has died. She was 104.
She handed away “peacefully” at her house in Richmond, California on Sunday, in accordance with a statement from her household.
“Thank you for your service, Ranger Betty,” the NPS wrote in a social media post marking Soskin’s loss of life.
Soskin grew to become a NPS ranger in later life, serving full-time at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond from 2011 to 2022. She performed a key position educating guests on the work of Black Americans on the house entrance during World War II.
“It was her opportunity to tell her story,” one of Soskin’s sons, Bob Reid, instructed NCS. “There were waiting lists to hear her presentations, where she would give her perspective. I think that was probably the heart of her work.”
Reid described his mom as a “trailblazer.”
She grew up in Oakland, California, and labored as a file clerk in a segregated union corridor during World War II, according to the NPS. That expertise allowed her to carry a novel perspective to her duties, Reid mentioned.
“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 mentioned when she retired from the NPS. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
Soskin’s life was “multifaceted,” in accordance with Reid. She and her husband based one of the primary Black-owned music shops in California, Reid’s Records. She additionally spent stints as an workplace employee and political staffer.
Her time as a discipline consultant for a California state meeting member introduced her to conferences the place the administration plan for the park the place she would later work was developed.
While representing that state on the desk and sharing her story, NPS noticed Soskin “as a valuable resource in building the park,” Reid mentioned. “They convinced her to become a park ranger.”
The position made Soskin a neighborhood movie star, and he or she ultimately caught the attention of the White House. She launched then-President Barrack Obama at a tree-lighting ceremony in 2016, the place Obama gave her the presidential coin.
Soskin’s namesake will reside on via the Betty Reid Soskin Middle School in El Sobrante, California. The faculty referred to as Soskin a “national treasure” in an announcement after her loss of life, and mentioned her “legacy of resilience, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to justice will forever inspire our community.”
Soskin printed the guide “Sign My Name to Freedom: A Memoir of a Pioneering Life” in 2018. A documentary on her life was within the works on the time of her passing.
NCS’s Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.