Ruth Lee Knight

Ruth Lee Knight Bethesda, MD Ruth Lee Knight, a long-time summer resident of Randolph, passed away peacefully at Doctors Hospital in Lanham, Maryland on January 5. Ruth started visiting Randolph in 1962 with her husband Bill and for nearly 50 years the couple and their children summered in Randolph, participating in local activities such as Randolph Mountain Club hikes, the Randolph Foundation, and the Randolph Colloquy (which she ran one summer.) The couple lived at several addresses on Randolph Hill Road and loved their restorative and uplifting summer visits to the North Country. Ruth Lila Lee was born in Patterson New Jersey on July 21, 1926, the second child of Philip and Bessie Lee, and grew up on Long Island, where she showed early achievement and talent as a pianist. She was valedictorian at Woodmere High School in Woodmere, NY in 1941 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY in 1945. The next year, she pursued graduate studies at Yale, where she met her future husband, William Knight, a veteran of the Army Air Corps who was preparing for a career in the US diplomatic service. The couple married in 1946, and immediately departed for Genoa, Italy, Bills first post. Over the next three decades, they represented our country in such disparate places as Rome, Italy, Reykjavik, Iceland, Canberra, Australia, and Manila in the Philippines, living in the Washington, DC area when stationed at home. They had two sons, Jeffrey in 1949 in Rome, and Peter, in 1953 in Washington, DC. Ruth had wide interests, an active mind, and a keen desire to work and meet new challenges. During her early years in the Foreign Service, Ruth pursued history and public affairs. In Italy, she ghost wrote the autobiography of the wife of Mussolinis ambassador to Hitlers Germany. In Australia, she earned an M.A. in History at the Australian National University. Her masters thesis was awarded First Class honors and was subsequently published by Melbourne University Press as Illiberal Liberal: Robert Lowe in New South Wales. Lowe, who was later to become Chancellor of the Exchequer under Gladstone, spent his early career in Australia. Reviewers described the biography as the best written work of Australian history to appear for a long time and a work of Tacitean brilliance. In the 1960s, Bill and Ruth spent several tours in Washington, during which she completed her studies for a PhD in History at George Washington University and began taking short-term projects in the federal bureaucracy focused on the Department of HEW and the history of the US military. Following her final tour in Manila from 1967-71, the Knights returned to Washington, where Ruth spent the next eight years serving as legislative aide to Representatives Donald Fraser (D-MN) and Stanley Lundine (D-NY), taking a break in 1978 to serve as Frasers Issues Director in his failed run for the Senate. While in Congress, she spearheaded successful legislation that shielded communities situated next to interstate highways from the noise of traffic (those walls that now block freeway noise from neighboring communities) and eliminated the dumping of raw sewage into rivers and streams from boats, laughingly called by Ruth the boat toilet amendment. In 1979, Ruth switched from the Congressional to the Executive branch and moved to OSHA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, where she served for 19 years in a number of positions including Chief of the Division of Legislative Affairs, Director of Policy in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Director of the Office of Program Evaluation. She retired in 1998. Ruth and Bill vacationed in Randolph almost every summer since 1968, when they first bought a home in the town. They also enjoyed overseas travel, revisiting the countries they had served in, having tennis vacations, and spending time with their grandchildren. While in Manila, Ruth had become involved in recording books for the blind, an activity she continued upon her return to the United States. Ruth always retained her eager and vocal interest in politics, fiction, history and public affairs. Ruth was predeceased by her husband in November, 2010 and is survived by her two sons, Jeffrey Knight of Oakland, CA and Peter Knight of Washington, DC, three grandchildren Michael, Sam, and Charlotte, and her brother, Stanley Lee, MD, of New York, NY and two daughters in law, Zanna Knight and Sheryl Lincoln who both felt they had struck gold in their mother-in-law. She will be buried in the Randolph Cemetery with her husband. A memorial service will be held at the Randolph Church at a date yet to be determined this summer. Gifts in Ruths memory can be sent to the Randolph Foundation (www.randolphfoundationnh.org). Any communications about upcoming services should be directed to Jeffrey Knight at jwknightjd@aol.com. The Bryant Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.