Celebrating Ms. Betty Reid Soskin 100 Years Young, the Oldest National Park Ranger

A snapshot about how one lady found her niche and lived it to the fullest

Watching Good Morning America and was so elated when I heard about the oldest living National Park Ranger in America age 100, Betty Reid Soskin, and is yet going strong as she was briefly interviewed on television.

Ms. Soskin as the oldest living American active park ranger celebrates her 100th birthday as the National Park Service honors the profound and noteworthy impact she has had in her field and now globally inspiring others to follow their passion and dreams.

She has become somewhat of a national celebrity for her tours at Richmond, California’s Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, after joining the National Park Service at the age 85, a another career.

Her life has been comprised of many careers. Soskin was born in 1921, Detroit, Michigan. Her career included being a file clerk during World War II in a segregated union hall, a political and community activist working with the Black Panthers and Antiwar movements, a business owner, an accomplished musician, a blogger, a political aide, and a great-grandmother.

Amazing is how people across the country and the world flocked to attend the Soskin’s tours, for the history of the national park but also her own remarkable story. She has become the subject of a documentary, was interviewed by Anderson Cooper and, was introduced to President Obama in 2015 during the White House tree-lighting ceremony.

Her career with the National Park Service began in 2000 as a consultant on the formation of the Rosie the Riveter Park in Richmond, California as she was the only person of color in the room and began voicing her “love and hate” relationship with the icon, that came to symbolize the experience of white women during the war according to the media. Her voice lead to diversified stories being told at the park.

With her assistance the park is now diversified with stories inclusive of the Mexican American braceros, the Japanese Americans of the internment camps, boxcar “Indian Village”, housed newly arrived New Mexico railway workers, and her own story.

According to the media, Ms. Soskin has an impeccable ability to share her own personal story with much vulnerability and flare so that all people can reflect on their own stories within themselves. The many stories not in the textbook are equally as important to society which is why Soskin’s impact is so phenomenal.

Celebrating Soskin as being the country’s oldest ranger, there are other centenarians involved in the National Park Service. There resides another junior park ranger, a 103-year-old woman, who joined in 2019 after visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time.

In conclusion, Soskin’s life story bespeaks that no one is too old to excel in what one loves to do, you just have to do it with heart, body, and soul and at the end of the day, life is satisfying and content. Soskin said by telling her story she was taking back her history. Kudos to her and others like her.

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