Before starting her first “paid work,” as Ruth Nadel called it, at age 55, she nonetheless had considerable work experience, in this community most notably as the cofounder of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Nadel’s career, during which she was a U.S. Navy wife in World War II, the mother of four boys, a Department of Labor policy maker, and an early feminist who tirelessly pushed professional expectations, norms, and barriers, continued well into her 100th year. She died on September 25, 2017, at the age of 103, in Northridge, California.
Ruth Nadel and her husband, Aaron “Harry” Nadel, settled in Santa Barbara in 1957. Though a full-time homemaker with four boys, Ruth’s spirited interests had frequently put her in the midst of local politics wherever they lived. One of the family’s favorite stories, from the late 1940s, has their then-preschooler playing dress up by slinging a purse on his arm and declaring, “I’m a mommy, and I’m going to a meeting.” With her children attending Santa Barbara schools, Nadel soon saw a problem that needed to be fixed.
At the high school level, not all graduates could afford the expenses of college. With Annette Slavin, who joined Nadel in forming the Scholarship Foundation, Nadel began to make pitches to neighbors, urging them to contribute by asking, “Let’s see what we can dream.” That first year, they succeeded in raising nine “book award” grants for $100. In 1962, the nascent charity became the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, with Ruth Nadel as its first president.