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Middle School Students Celebrate Betty Reid Soskin, the Nation’s Oldest Park Ranger, at 104
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KQED News
The East Bay middle school, formerly Juan Crespi Middle School, was renamed in 2021 to honor Reid Soskin, who, Principal Jason Lau said, serves as a role model and an inspiration to the students.
“Your legacy reminds us that it’s never too early or too late to make a difference,” he told Reid Soskin in front of the small crowd assembled in the school’s library for her party on Monday.
While she doesn’t consider herself a “Rosie,” proclaimed a display documenting Reid Soskin’s life at the school’s library, Reid Soskin made her own contributions to the World War II effort at home in the Bay Area as a file clerk for shipyard workers in Richmond.
She would later lead the creation of the Richmond site, which opened in 2000.
Reid Soskin said it wasn’t until her mid-50s, after she experienced the loss of her father and two former husbands within the span of just three months, that her life took a turn toward political activism — and to fully embracing who she is.
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