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About Ruth Haas

Ruth Alice Haas was born on March 30, 1903, in Syracuse, New York. She attended schools in Syracuse and Amherstberg, Ontario, Canada, and earned a B.S. in education and a M.A. in political science from Syracuse University. Before coming to Danbury, she taught in Watertown, New York, and in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University

Ruth Haas came to the Danbury Normal School as Dean of Women in 1931. She was appointed President of Danbury State Teachers College in 1946 thus becoming the first woman in the United States to serve as president of a four-year state college.

During her tenure as president, she served as President of the Eastern States Association of Professional Schools for Teachers, President of the Connecticut Council on Higher Education, and President of the New England Association of Teachers Colleges. She also served on the New England Board of Higher Education, the Advisory Council to the Connecticut Commission on Higher Education, and on the State Commission on Cooperation with Federal Authorities in Matters Pertaining to Higher Education.

In Danbury, Ruth Haas served as a Manager and a Trustee of Danbury Hospital, as a Trustee of the Danbury Library, as a Trustee of the Scott-Fanton Museum and as a member of the Bicentennial Commission. She was a recipient of the News Times Civic Achievement Award, the first to receive the Book of Golden Deeds award of the Exchange Club, and received the Liberty Bell Award from the Danbury Bar Association.

Ruth Haas received many honors, awards and citations throughout her career and in 1969 the new library at Western Connecticut State College was named in her honor. She also received honorary degrees from Syracuse University, Rhode Island College, Albertus Magnus College, and the University of Hartford. Ruth Haas died on November 25, 1986.

[Prepared by WCSU Archives]

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