April 1, 2022
"If we don't know where we started, we have no conception of where we are or how we got here. Only if we go back and retrace our steps. And that's what the park became for me."
The oldest active ranger in the National Park Service (NPS), Betty Reid Soskin, reflecting on her experiences in Richmond, CA during WWII, where she worked as a file clerk for a shipyard labor union. She retired Thursday at 100 years old after working at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in the same California city — a job she started in her 80s! Of the 15+ years Soskin spent working for the NPS, she said: "To be a part of helping to mark the place where that dramatic trajectory of my own life, combined with others of my generation, will influence the future by the footprints we've left behind has been incredible."
100 year-old National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin retires after remarkable career (National Park Service)
Oldest U.S. active park ranger retires at 100 (Associated Press)
Nation's oldest park ranger, Betty Reid Soskin, retires at age 100 (CBS News)
Click HERE to read our QTD from September 2021, when Betty turned 100 years old!
WATCH: "Ranger Betty Reid Soskin speaks at the Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center in Richmond, California. In this 55-minute video, Betty introduces the park film 'Home Front Heroes', which is played in its entirety." (NPS)
by Jenna Lee,
