Ruth Straus Gainer

Although my family was from New York City, I was born on a military base in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1939. My father was a physician who had enlisted in the army in anticipation of U.S. entry in WWII. After the war, we took a summer trip through New England that included Woods Hole as the first stop. My next visit was in 1969 with my husband, Hal Gainer, and children, Vivian, Ben and Jesse. Hal had been a post-doc in Harry Grundfest's lab and now was a scientist at The National Institutes of Health with a lab at the MBL. At the end of our first summer, my children observed that, "The people here play at their work and work at their play."

After one summer in a "commune" arrangement in Peggy and Marc Shulman's house on Sumner St. and many summers in lab cottages, we bought Meryl and Florence Rose's house on High Street in 1979. Harry gave us the double flowering, orange daylilies that have flourished in our garden ever since. By coincidence, the husband of a woman I worked with in Rockville, Maryland was the great grandson of Dr. Caswell Grave who built our house in 1910.

I met Elaine Pear Cohen on Stony Beach in 1972 when I heard her being introduced on the towel behind mine. I turned and said, "I just read an article you wrote." We were both art teachers and soon became fast friends and devoted colleagues. Our book, Art, Another Language for Learning, has had three editions. We also met Barbara Waters at Stony. She was a teacher at The Children's School of Science(CSS) and told us about a grant she had received. Elaine and I applied for and received the same grant.

I have made many wonderful friends by volunteering for various jobs at CSS. I also taught "Mapping Woods Hole" in 1987. The twenty students and two assistants in the course produced the "Woods Hole Anniversary Map" for the 100th anniversary of the MBL and the 75th anniversary of the Children's School of Science. Julie Child and I collaborated on an article, "Scientific Illustration for The Elementary School", in Art Education, the Journal of the National Art Education Association.

I have greatly enjoyed participating in the Woods Hole Community Art Show every year. I am most grateful to all those who make this beautiful village the lively, interesting place that it is.