Ruth Elisabeth Adams

February 11, 1926 — August 7, 2016

In her last months, when dementia had stolen most memories, Ruth still glowed when talking about meeting the dashing Australian pilot who would become her husband at an Elks Club Charity carnival in San Rafael one autumn evening in 1947. And she never forgot how much she loved living on Vashon. These were the bookends of her chosen life.

Ruth was born in Topeka, Kansas, the only child of Marion and Aletha Shirley. The family lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri until 1942, when they moved to California. Ruth graduated from Tamalpais High School (where Pat Paulson was a classmate) and attended Marin Junior College and UC Berkeley. She married Douglas Adams in 1948 and was bookkeeper and all-around assistant to Doug’s newspaper agency business until 1969, when she began working at Sonoma State College, eventually heading the Media Center in the Ruben Salazar Library at Sonoma State University. Ruth and Doug travelled extensively throughout Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, the UK and a four-month world cruise on a freighter following Ruth’s retirement in 1990.

After receiving her first library card at age five, Ruth quickly devoured all the books in the children’s section and petitioned to be allowed to check out the grown-up books. For the rest of her life Ruth was a voracious reader, filling her house with bookshelves chock-a-plenty with books read and waiting to be read. In 1994, Ruth and Doug made the move to Vashon that they had been planning since their honeymoon trip tracing the coast from Marin County to British Columbia. At home on Vashon, she volunteered with Friends of the Library, where the librarians loved her as much as she loved the library. She was an avid supporter of the Roma people. Her work in the book department at Granny’s was one of the great joys of her life.

Ruth was widowed in 2007, just three weeks shy of their 60th anniversary, when her beloved Doug died. Ruth is survived by her children Nancy (Adams) Koski and her husband Douglas Koski of Sonoma County; Stephen Adams of Sonoma County; Susan Adams and her husband Christopher Howe of Vashon; two grandchildren; three great-grandchildren and many dear friends. The family is deeply grateful to the many caring people who helped Ruth in her last years.

A celebration of Ruth’s life will be held on Vashon in the near future. The date will be announced in The Beachcomber.