Ruth Koehler, a tireless volunteer and staunch environmentalist who led the creation of two Los Altos parks and Hillview Community Center, died April 30 at The Sequoias retirement community. Mrs. Koehler, who served as Los Altos mayor in 1974, was 96.
The Gardner, Mass., native served in myriad volunteer capacities during her five decades in Los Altos. Lacking in pretense, Mrs. Koehler kept busy working hard for the community causes she believed in – even if those causes didn’t resonate with others.
“If a previous council had listened to the active citizens group in 1976,” Mrs. Koehler once remarked, “we would not have purchased the Hillview property on which to build the community center, nor would we have Redwood Grove or Heritage Oaks Park if that council hadn’t ignored the fact that the bond issue to purchase those properties had failed, and they bought those recreational treasures anyway.”
“I credit the park and civic land purchased in the 1970s to my mentor, friend and councilmate Ruth Koehler, with her passion for the city and good governance,” said Roy Lave, former Los Altos mayor and council member.
Added Penny Lave, also a former mayor and council member: “Ruth was a warrior. She never flinched from facing off with George Sanregret, the city manager, when she was mayor, which many of the women involved in city government at the time appreciated. Her absence in Los Altos has been felt, and we miss her sage advice.”
Mrs. Koehler also went against the grain of most residents in her quest for more affordable housing.
“While my support for affordable housing was not fruitful, I have no regrets for my actions supporting housing, as it is so needed for our own children, grandchildren, policemen, firefighters and teachers,” she once said.
Mrs. Koehler was a renowned scientist. The Mount Holyoke College graduate worked as a research chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she met her husband, Keith. They moved to Southern California in the 1950s before Keith landed a job at Lockheed that brought them to Los Altos in the early 1960s. Along the way, they had three boys, Stephen, John and James.
‘Modest and humble’
Outside council government, Mrs. Koehler became active in the local League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women and Community Services Agency, to name a few associations. In the 1980s, she continued to serve the city as chairperson of the Los Altos Senior Housing Coalition and the Los Altos Senior Coordinating Council, which morphed into the Los Altos Senior Center.
Acutely aware of the health impacts from air pollution, Mrs. Koehler was active on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors and the California Air Resources Board.
Mrs. Koehler left Los Altos in 2002 to join The Sequoias retirement community in Portola Valley but remained active here. She kept up on the goings-on in her former community, writing letters to the editor of the Town Crier and participating in a 2019 oral history at the Los Altos History Museum.
“Modest and humble,” said Marcia Adams, when asked to describe Mrs. Koehler.
Adams, who interviewed Mrs. Koehler for the museum’s oral history project, added, “I don’t think Ruth cared about how high her profile was. She did the work.”
Perhaps underappreciated was Mrs. Koehler’s sense of humor. As mayor, she issued a “Non-Proclamation Day” so that her husband, “who has exhibited great patience and fortitude, as well as restraint during the past year, can be accorded a day of relief from duty of Mayor’s Spouse on the occasion of his birthday.”
Mrs. Koehler is survived by Keith, her husband of 72 years; sons Stephen, John and James; and numerous grandchildren.
Services will be private.
