Ruth Woo: 1926–2016

Edi­tor’s Note: Respect­ed and wide­ly beloved Seat­tle com­mu­ni­ty activist Ruth Woo died this week at the age of eighty-nine. 

News of her pass­ing has sparked an out­pour­ing of tributes. 

“Over many, many years, Ruth Woo was a won­der­ful friend and men­tor to count­less Wash­ing­to­ni­ans. She was a trust­ed leader with a remark­able tal­ent for bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er. Ruth was gen­er­ous with her time, her ideas and advice,” said Wash­ing­ton State Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee. 

“She was moti­vat­ed not by fame or access to pow­er, but by a con­ta­gious belief that we could always do more to make this a bet­ter place to live. She had a remark­able abil­i­ty to cre­ate and con­nect com­mu­ni­ties, a tal­ent that helped advance the cause of civ­il rights,” said King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Constantine.

NPI’s Gael Tar­leton was among those who knew Ruth Woo. What fol­lows are her reflec­tions on the wise and won­der­ful per­son Ruth was. 

So many peo­ple called her Aun­tie — I just called her Ruth.

We lost a great woman this week.

Ruth Woo nev­er worked in the spot­light. She’d hold court at Bush Gar­dens in the Inter­na­tion­al Dis­trict, in her favorite booth. I nev­er would have known her if I had­n’t run for office. When I decid­ed to run for the Seat­tle Port Com­mis­sion in 2007, sev­er­al peo­ple told me to call Ruth Woo. I left her voice mails to intro­duce myself. But I did­n’t speak to her until Octo­ber, just a month before the election.

She asked me a few ques­tions about the years I worked in Rus­sia. Then she said “I’m going to endorse you. Don’t let me down.”

In the years that fol­lowed, I’d call her to talk about the pol­i­tics of the Port. She always had a fas­ci­na­tion with the Port of Seat­tle. She under­stood the role of trade. But more than any­thing, she could­n’t believe so few women ever ran for Port Com­mis­sion­er. That’s when I real­ized Ruth Woo fought many fights in her life, but one of those fights was get­ting more women elect­ed to local and state offices.

She want­ed more women of col­or to choose to enter pol­i­tics too. And for her, that meant becom­ing a con­fi­dante. She was a safe and trust­ed advi­sor with a keen­ly tuned ear to the polit­i­cal fault lines every elect­ed offi­cial steps into.

So few women take the time to men­tor women who choose to enter the polit­i­cal are­na. Here was Ruth Woo, who lived eighty-nine years, and who devot­ed more than half her life to help­ing women and peo­ple of col­or win and then guid­ed them as they nav­i­gat­ed into the world of elect­ed office. She was intim­i­dat­ing, encour­ag­ing, can­did, and wise. Ruth Woo did it her way. We’re so lucky she chose our com­mu­ni­ty to make her home and make a dif­fer­ence. She is now at peace.