Ruth Slonim Papers, circa 1900-2000

Ruth Slonim was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 30, 1918, and grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. She earned a Bachelor of Education degree from Duluth State Teachers' College in 1938 and a Master's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1944. By 1952, she had completed all necessary course work to receive a Ph.D., but because of family complications was unable to finish her dissertation. She taught in the English department at Central Washington College from 1944 to 1946, before taking a position as a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico where she developed the humanities division of the General Education Program.

Slonim came to Washington State University, then the State College of Washington, in 1947 and taught modern poetry and English literature. She took a leave of absence in 1970 when she was invited by the School of Irish Studies University College and Trinity College to teach a course on William Butler Yeats. She taught at WSU for thirty-six years, retiring in 1983. Slonim was dedicated to teaching and strove to inspire her students and to instill in them a commitment to academic integrity, critical thinking, and compassion to those around them. Because of her tireless service to her students and to the university she received many awards and much recognition, including being named the Woman of Achievement in 1952. In 1965, students voted for her to receive the Outstanding Faculty Woman award; in 1966, the Washington division of the American Association of University Women named her a Distinguished Woman of Achievement. In 1967, she became the first woman faculty member to deliver the WSU Distinguished Faculty Address. Her faculty colleagues selected her to deliver the annual Invited Address in 1969. She served on many important university committees, including the Faculty Executive Committee, the University Planning Committee and the International Education Committee. Slonim was also keenly interested in international affairs and was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the International Conference of UNESCO in Paris in 1951.

Slonim published five volumes of poetry: "Sketchings" (1938); "London: An American Appreciation" (1954); "San Francisco: 'The City' in Verse" (1965); "Outer Traces, Inner Places" (1981) which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; "Poems and Proems" (1992). Other poems and academic papers were published in various periodicals. In 1989, Washington State governor Booth Gardner gave her a Governor's Arts Award. In 1962, Slonim initiated the Poetry Reading Series at WSU, which continued through 1981. She was able to bring many notable poets to campus for this series, including William Stafford, Galway Kinnell, Richard Hugo, W.H. Auden, Carolyn Kizer and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Slonim died in Moscow, Idaho on February 16, 2005.