Planting 4-H Roots

Ruth Kimball has helped hundreds of youngsters sink roots into life. Teacher, farmer, adviser, friend—her own roots, for that matter, are deeply planted in the 100-year foundations laid by 4-H.

Formally inducted into the newly opened 4-H Hall of Fame in Washington in April 2002 on the organization’s 100th birthday, Kimball is one of the original 50 inductees and the first from New Hampshire. No one in her hometown of Epsom (pop. 4,021) would disagree. She earned it.

In 1942, with a degree in elementary education, Kimball married and settled onto the family farm, but the urge to teach was strong in her. A 4-H member in her childhood, she became a leader of the local 4-H Victory Workers Club, nurturing the seeds of young lives with knowledge, caring, and dedication. From the original group of 12 during World War II, the club now has a membership of 66, with 12 “Cloverbuds” (youngsters aged 5 to 8).

“There are so many good kids,” she says of her reasons for staying the course in 4-H. For more than 60 years, this farm wife has helped work the land, now a farm of 300 acres with 137 head of cattle and 60 sheep. A mother of six, grandmother of 17, great-grandmother of 18, with an extended family of more than 800 4-H participants, she‘s affected many lives. “I just think so much of the program. It does so much good for so many kids,” she says.

Kimball is not accustomed, however, to beating her own drum. Others do it for her.

“You ask her to do something, and her answer is always ‘I’ll be glad to,’” says Debbie Cheever, who wrote Kimball’s inductee nomination. Like 4-H and the young people she’s influenced, Kimball has grown from the days of “cows and cooking” to embrace many 4-H projects, from animal husbandry to zoology. Where she couldn’t run a program herself, she found someone who could.

In addition to numerous county awards, her charges have won more than 50 state prizes, five have gone on to win national awards, and one reached the pinnacle of 4-H achievement—the Presidential Service Award. She’s been instrumental in the intangible goals of the Life Skills programs, where 4-H places much of its emphasis. “She provides the atmosphere for helping kids to learn, the cog that makes things happen” Cheever says, “and she teaches values that are very dear.”

“I don’t know how she ever did it,” says Lurene Reio, 35, of her 10-year 4-H membership and association with Kimball. Now a licensed pharmacist, Reio was the winner of many county awards and recalls with fondness how, without Kimball, she wouldn’t have won the state award. A knee injury shortly before her departure put her on crutches and unable to travel. Kimball showed up in her van, loaded Reio, family, friends, crutches, and demonstration materials, and off they went to win the prize in Concord. “I would love to be half the leader Ruth is,” says Reio, now a 4-H leader herself.

“I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but I found a lot,” says Melissa Currier of her decision at age 8 to join Kimball’s club. Describing herself as shy and retiring, the senior at Keene State College—a double-major in Early Childhood Development and Communications—credits Kimball with pulling her out of a self-imposed shell and giving her confidence she never knew she had.

George Gilman, 46, remembers how Kimball gave him a sense of community and sharing that carried him to 11 years as a volunteer fireman and captain of the Rescue Squad. She helped him win the state award in forestry, and when his brother Gerald needed a cow for his animal husbandry project, Kimball provided one of her own. Gilman’s daughters are now in her club, and when Kimball calls on him for projects, he says, “I jump right back in without a question.”

That these stories can be repeated 800-fold became evident when the 21 professional state 4-H staffers met to nominate the Hall of Fame inductee from New Hampshire. Each brought the name of their candidate. When Cheever put Kimball’s name on the table, the meeting was over. It was unanimous.

Warren D. Jorgensen is a regular contributor to American Profile.

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