Obituary of Ruth Freinkel

Ruth Kimmelstiel Freinkel, Dec. 26,1926 to May 17, 2014.Ruth Freinkel died May 17 at the age of 87 at her home in Cascade Manor Retirement Community. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Ruth emigrated to the United States with her family when she was 7 years old. Over the course of her life, she made her way west, from Boston to Chicago to Eugene in 2006. It was hard for her to leave Chicago, but she came to love her new hometown with its rhododendrons in the spring and the birds who visited her feeder every day. Though she didn’t see herself as such, Ruth was a pioneer: one of only five women in her class at Duke Medical School and one of the first female residents at Boston City Hospital. She spent 34 years as professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Medical School and was honored to be Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology from 1977 to 1982. In 2010 Northwestern recognized her lifetime achievements by endowing the Ruth K. Freinkel Professorship in Dermatology. Proud as she was of her professional accomplishments, she was more proud of her family: husband Norbert, who died in1989; children Susan, Andrew and Lisa; sons-in-law Eric Wolfe and Ezra Tishman and grandchildren, Eli, Isaac and Moriah Wolfe. Ruth was a life-long learner, a lover of science, literature and history, music and Scrabble, head cheese and a good bear claw pastry. She will be deeply missed.A memorial service will be held June 28th at 2:00 pm at Cascade Manor in Eugene. In lieu of flowers, please give to the charity of one’s choice and please notify the family at rkfmemorial@gmail.com.Arrangements entrusted to Musgrove Family Mortuary. Please access the obituary and you are invited to sign the guestbook at musgroves.com