There ’s no geezerhood bound for enjoying the outdoors , tack calling , or speaking out against injustice — and Betty Reid Soskin is know test copy . AsTravel + Leisurereports , the 96 - class - old California resident physician is the nation ’s oldest active interior park forest fire fighter , a former - in - animation vocation she embarked on just over a decade ago .
Soskin , who originally hails from Detroit , works at the Rosie the Riveter / World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond , California . The national parkpreservesthe chronicle of the U.S. home front during World War II , include the business enterprise , innovation , and mass that helped make victory possible . ( Richmond was once home to more than 56 different war industries . )
Today , Soskin gives interpretive tours of the Mungo Park . But long ago , she worked as a World War II Indian file clerk for the all - black Boilermakers A-36 . Soskin — the smashing - granddaughter of a freed hard worker — gained local prominence as an militant , and fame as a songwriter , during the Civil Rights Movement . But account ended up being just as important to Soskin as current political effect when she serve as a adviser with the National Park Service for the Rosie the Riveter Park in the early 2000s .
Soskin was the only person of color at the planning table , consort to NPR . She check that the historic park did n’t erase memories of the segregation that had once exist at factory and shipyard , as doing so would also erase the history of the area ’s African - American universe .
Word of Soskin and her activistic effort spread , especially when shepublicly denouncedthe 2013 federal financing crisis . In 2015 she was officially recognized by President Barack Obama , who gave her a silvery coin with the presidential seal . Sadly , Soskin ’s presidential coin was steal in 2016 in a fierce home encroachment , but she returned to work three weeks after the attempt , sayingin a press league that she “ wanted to get back into routine life . ”
devotee of Soskin can keep up with her viaher blog , where she ’s compose about her life and job since 2003 . you’re able to also learn more about her , in her own words , in the video below .
[ h / tTravel + Leisure ]
