Oldest U.S. Active Park Ranger Retires at 100

[appalachiablue]

Source: AP News

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — The nation’s oldest active park ranger is hanging up her Smokey hat at the age of 100. Betty Reid Soskin retired Thursday after more than 15 years at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, the National Park Service announced.

Soskin “spent her last day providing an interpretive program to the public and visiting with coworkers,” a Park Service statement said.

She led tours at the park and museum honoring the women who worked in factories during wartime and shared her own experience as a Black woman during the conflict. She worked for the U.S. Air Force in 1942 but quit after learning that “she was employed only because her superiors believed she was white,” according to a Park Service biography.

“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 said in the Park Service statement. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”...

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/travel-education-lifestyle-parks-national-parks-8f071e386330905869228e5cb1acb1d6

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- National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin smiles during an interview at Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif., July 12, 2016. Soskin, the nation's oldest active park ranger, is hanging up her smokey hat at the age of 100. She retired after more than 15 years at the park, the National Park Service announced. Soskin "spent her last day providing an interpretive program to the public and visiting with coworkers," a Park Service statement said.

[Hoyt]

1. Hope she writes a book or something.

[appalachiablue]

2. Definitely, I luv the Park Service, rangers are first rate.

[NBachers]

3. I don't have any tattoos, but if I ever get one, this is what it'll be:

And I sure love using my National Parks Senior Card - it gets me and my carload in for free!

[appalachiablue]

4. Excellent, support the Park Service folks!

[whathehell]

5. Tavis Smiley interviewed this woman a few years back..

I loved her story..Can you magine starting a brand new job at 85 years old??

She is amazing :

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Wow.

I cannot imagine continuing to work to age 100.

For me, no job I've ever had was as good as not working, and I was more than ready to stop working at age 66. I am happy to stay home, feed my cat, read books, and do anything other than "work".

I have often read of such people as in the OP, and I'm both in awe and totally mystified. I have many times read of people well into their 90s, sometimes older, who are happy to remain in their job. Good for them. But for me, time for myself is hugely important.

Maybe this is just an example of someone having no identity outside of work. I do get that, as I was that way many years ago. I was an airline ticket agent at DCA, National Airport in Washington DC. I was my job, until I took training to be a volunteer tour guide at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian. In the middle of that training I underwent a profound shift, understood that I was NOT my job, I was a person who did that job. It gave me perspective and understanding. Ever since then, I've had no problem distinguishing myself from whatever job I might happen to have, to realize my own life is far more important than my paid employment.

I have at times met someone who retired from a job (usually a state job with a good pension, if that matters) and who went back to work within a year because they were "bored." Bored? I can't imagine. What I really can't imagine is not having a life outside the job. Not having totally separate interests and things to do. To me, having no identity outside the job, having no interests outside the job, having no personal definition outside the job is truly sad. You really should be more than the job.

Okay, I realize I've gone beyond the scope of the OP, but I do feel very strongly about this.

[Ziggysmom]

8. I understand completely. I've met people who really have no hobbies or few outside interests

other than work. I look forward to one day being able to afford retirement and finally finish all the dang projects I've started

[nitpicker]

12. I was my job too

Until events lead to my retirement.

At least I got a few years in before anno domini hit.

At a time in the 1980s, so many people were dying in harness at my workplace, or just after shedding it that the dark joke was "average age of death" of workers or retirees.

Of course, some of this was probably not-helped by the 1987 stock market crash.

[iluvtennis]

7. AMAZING!! - may she enjoy her retirement years to come. n/t

[2naSalit]

9. Congrats to Ranger Betty Reid Soskin!

Still working at 100! And Through a pandemic at that age!

I thought Ranger Bob Cook was going to hit that mark, not sure if he's still with us.

As a short time Ranger, I laud anyone who can keep on as an Interpretive Ranger for any length of time. The meaner and nastier tourists get, the harder it is to do the job and like it.

[darosky]

10. She looks great

Good bless her.

[Torchlight]

11. It's amazing to me to think

she was a young child in pigtails when the great depression and dust bowl happened. She was a graduating high school about the time the US entered the second world war. In her late 30s when Sputnik made its first orbit. In her 40s during Beatlemania. In her 50s when the microchip was first engineered. A senior when the advent of the personal computer became a thing.

I think I'm a little jealous (and awe-struck more so) of this particular generation who witnessed the greatest (arguably) technological, social, and industrial advances in human history.

[colorado_ufo]

13. My husband's grandparents had quite a tale -

he courted her on horseback, and they lived to see men walk on the moon and more!

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Except that the ranger is a woman

[appalachiablue]

16. Tx for posting. What a smart, dedicated & beautiful woman!

I've always been fond of the fashion and hairstyles of the 1940s.

Here's a good article with the trailer for the film about Betty Reid Soskin's story and more, from Daily Kos. What an inspiration. I'm posting this article and the Trailer in the Video section here today.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/1/2089465/-Nation-s-oldest-National-Park-Service-Ranger-Betty-Reid-Soskin-retires-at-age-100

[BumRushDaShow]

17. YW

I know getting that hairstyle just right had to be a PITA but then they had many more "beauty salons", plus a lot more rollers and bobby pins.

And I did see that film trailer and also saw a number of video features out there about her like this -

Plus a video of one of her presentations for NPS -

https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm%3Fid%3D3E1592F1-9AC2-4330-9603-72B20A139AF1



(damn if I had some of her energy!!! )

[appalachiablue]

18. Energy, diverse skills & experience, & commitment! My mom

rolled her beautiful long hair in front like that some during WWII, saw the photos.

Thank you much for this additional info, I've learned so much about her amazing work and spirit!

We need a national memorial, park and museum honoring Betty Reid Soskin!

[BumRushDaShow]

19. I know my mom used to wear bangs back in the '40s & '50s

but by the early '60s, she and most of her friends were like f-it and bought wigs or falls, which became a thing for the then 30-somethings. She never got into the rollers though.