Ruth Lorraine Maier

Ruth Lorraine Redenius Maier of Westminster, CO, left a life well-lived in the company of her loved ones on June 1, 2024. She was 86. Ruth is survived by her husband, Bill, and their four children; their son, Will and his partner, Averil; their daughters, Alycia, Terese, and Victoria and her husband, Jakob; five grandchildren, Alex and his wife, Monica; Helen and her partner, John; Aidan and his fiancée, Lois; Max; and Harvey; and two great-grandchildren, Ava and Vivian. She is also survived by her younger sister, Rosalie Schrack and her children.

Ruth was born on August 25, 1937 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, to Harvey Redenius and Ruth Adams. She spent her childhood in Allen’s Grove, Wisconsin, driving through the countryside with her barn-builder father to see his creations and learning family recipes from her mother. An early passion for fashion and sewing revealed a knack for building a vision and then turning it into reality, a talent that would eventually win teenage Ruth a brand-new Singer sewing machine and help grown-up Ruth as well.

After graduating as salutatorian from Darien High School in 1955, Ruth was admitted to the Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing, where she qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1958. She married William B. Maier II that same year on September 21st in Rochester, Minnesota. This education, and that of her husband, Bill, opened new doors for Ruth: Life took the young couple to Chicago, Illinois, where she worked became Head Nurse at Billings Hospital at the University of Chicago while her husband completed a PhD in Physics.

In 1964, the family moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Ruth took a job at the Los Alamos Medical Center (LAMC). She moved into roles with increasing responsibility which included Head Nurse of the Surgical Floor and Head Nurse of the Medical Floor until 1982, where she took on the position of Head of Infection Control at LAMC. It was in this role that Ruth saw the need to raise awareness on AIDS, then a controversial topic with which many medical staff did not want to be associated. But Ruth was a visionary, and the initial rejection of her campaign merely spurred on her creativity: Instead of merely informing people at a doctor’s office, she was an advocate for AIDS education that reached throughout Los Alamos Country. Northern New Mexico’s very first cardiac rehabilitation program was another passion for Ruth.

Ruth gave back to the community wherever she lived. She taught Sunday School and led a Girl Scout Brownie troop in New Mexico. At the Eagle’s Nest Summer Camp, where she volunteered as Camp Nurse, she was known to all as “Scrubbs.” When she and her husband moved to Monterey, California, in 1994, she donated her time to the Steinbeck House

Her true interest in the world made her an astute observer of people, and she was excellent at engaging people for a cause and leveraging their hidden talents. An adventurer her whole life, she traveled across Europe and North America with her family and even walked the Great Wall of China. She will be greatly missed by friends and family.