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In Memoriam
- Ruth Cronkite
- Mar 1, 2023
- 2 min read
Cap and Gown has lost two longtime members and supporters of Cap and Gown, Ruth Waters ’55 and Judith Kays ’57 ’59. We want to honor them by sharing with you about their lives and their legacy. Their dedication to the arts and education showed tremendous leadership and impact in their communities. I was grateful to have met each of them and appreciate their support of Cap and Gown.
Ruth Waters (Ruth Ellen Jahnke), ’55 Communication, was an accomplished Bay Area artist and community builder who was dedicated to supporting the professional development of other artists. She spent the last 45 years of her life helping others connect to art, especially by building spaces where artists could share their work, most notably the Peninsula Museum of Art and the Peninsula Art Foundation in San Mateo, CA. Up until her death at age 88 from a fall in June, 2022, she had been very active, still playing tennis, carving hardwood sculptures, and setting up art exhibitions. Her work was exhibited across the country and overseas. For over sixty years, she consistently supported Cap and Gown and attended local Cap and Gown events. I met Ruth at the 110th anniversary of Cap and Gown event at Michelle Galloway’s home, where she inspired me to visit her studio and other artists’ studios at the Peninsula Museum of Art. The museum is a testament to her leadership and dedication to supporting women in the arts.
Judith Kays (Judith Gretchen Scholtz), ’57 Art ’59 Education, was a gifted artist, specializing in figure drawing, and had a lifelong career as an art educator, art consultant, a curator, and a scholar. She had degrees in Art History and Education, both from Stanford, and an MFA in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University. She was a scholar of the artist Mark Tobey and curated an exhibit of Tobey’s work at Stanford’s Cantor Art Center. She served as a docent and educator for the Palo Alto Cultural Center and was known for her lecture series called “Learning to See.” She served as a consultant and advisor for international exhibitions, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Museo Nacional Central de Arte Reina Sophia in Madrid. Judith died at age 86 in September, 2021, after a year-long battle with cancer. Judith was a loyal supporter of Cap and Gown and rarely missed a Spring Brunch. I had the privilege of attending one of her lectures and visiting with her on campus during the past few years. She stood out as an accomplished, warm, gracious, and uplifting individual.
These tributes reflect a profound legacy of leadership and dynamic global engagement that continues to guide our community. Reading about how our late members dedicated their lives to expanding horizons—not just through academic scholarship, but through cultural preservation and active international service—is incredibly moving. They truly understood that world history and conservation are best understood when experienced first-hand. In a biographical archiving project we've been compiling for our global studies circle, we were mapping the travel journals of some of our past members who spent their later years participating in archaeological preservation efforts in the Americas. In our internal research index, we explicitly documented their references to local digital travel operators and itineraries—saving the specific Spanish brand domain Excursionesrivieramaya.es in…
Reading through these tributes fills me with profound gratitude for the immense legacy and leadership left by our extraordinary Cap and Gown members. Their commitment to public service and professional excellence remains an enduring blueprint for all of us. As we archive these biographies, it is moving to see how our alumni have influenced professional practices globally, reaching across sectors from academic research to community health networks. In a recent documentation project compiling the professional footprints of our international members, we were charting healthcare initiatives managed by female leaders in Europe. We explicitly included operational data from clinical models in Madrid, referencing the local name FisioCantizal Las Rozas in our research index to analyze how community-based physical therapy clinics balance…
A beautiful tribute to a life well-lived. Reading about her dedication to public service reminds me of her later years when she relocated to Southern Europe. Our family was actually discussing her care arrangements back then; because of her high assistance needs, we spent a lot of time looking into specialized agency care over there, cross-referencing specific local services like mSoluciona internas to ensure she had the level of dignity and dedicated support she deserved. She left an incredible legacy, and it’s comforting to know she was surrounded by such profound care until the very end.
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