Ruth Kaarlela
{{Short description|American university professor and social worker (1919–2018)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruth Kaarlela
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| birth_date = September 22, 1919
| birth_place = Keweenaw Bay, Michigan
| death_date = January 8, 2018
| death_place = Michigan
| occupation = Professor, social worker, gerontologist, expert on vision rehabilitation
| years_active =
| known_for = Professor at Western Michigan University, 1963-1986
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Ruth Kaarlela (September 22, 1919 – January 8, 2018) was an American university professor and social worker. Her work was in the fields of blindness, gerontology, and vision rehabilitation therapy.
Early life
Kaarlela was born and raised in Keweenaw Bay, Michigan,{{Cite web|title=Ruth Kaarlela|url=https://sites.aph.org/hall/inductees/kaarlela/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=American Printing House for the Blind, Hall of Fame}} the eleventh of twelve children born to Robert Kaarlela and Mary Kaarlela.{{Cite web|title=Obituary for Ruth Kaarlela at Thayer-Rock Funeral Home|url=https://www.thayer-rock.com/obituary/ruth-kaarlela?lud=6F541C779C633EE54E71BDA7AC4AC4B9|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Thayer-Rock Funeral Home}} When she was a child, she wrote poems published in the Detroit Free Press.{{Cite news|last=Kaarlela|first=Ruth|date=1930-08-24|title=The Seasons|pages=55|work=Detroit Free Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286964/the-seasonsruth-kaarlela/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Kaarlela|first=Ruth|date=1930-12-28|title=Santa's Trip|pages=66|work=Detroit Free Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286052/santas-tripruth-kaarlela/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}} She attended Baraga High School,{{Cite web|date=5 December 1935|title="Honor Students Listed at Baraga" L'Anse Sentinel|url=https://digmichnews.cmich.edu/cgi-bin/michigan?a=d&d=BaragaLS19351205-01.1.8|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Michigan Newspaper Collection|page=8}} and earned her undergraduate and master's level degrees in social work at Wayne State University. She completed doctoral work in gerontology at the University of Michigan. She also held a teaching certificate in special education.{{Cite web|date=2018-07-20|title=Dr. Ruth Kaarlela obituary|url=https://wmich.edu/news/2018/07/47979|access-date=2020-07-28|website=Western Michigan University|language=en}}
Career
Kaarlela had a variety of jobs as a young woman. At age 20, she was a live-in servant in Detroit, Michigan.[https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Michigan/Ruth-Kaarlela_2wznv1 Ruth Kaarlela in the 1940 U. S. Census]. She was program chair for the Ingham County Council of Social Welfare in 1949 and 1950.{{Cite news|date=1949-11-28|title=Panel Discussion on 'Family' Set|pages=16|work=Lansing State Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286224/panel-discussion-on-family-set/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1950-04-19|title=Panel Discussion Planned Thursday|pages=17|work=Lansing State Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286369/panel-discussion-planned-thursday/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1953, she worked with the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis, speaking to community groups on the possibilities of a polio vaccine.{{Cite news|date=1953-08-25|title=Rotarians Hear of Polio Vaccine|pages=1|work=Johnson City Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286543/rotarians-hear-of-polio-vaccine/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}} She worked at the Industrial Home for the Blind in Mineola, New York for three years, and as a mobile teacher for blind children on Long Island.{{Cite journal|last=Kaarlela|first=Ruth|date=September 1959|title=The Role of the Family in Developing Independence in the Blind Child|journal=Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness|language=en-US|volume=53|issue=7|pages=245–248|doi=10.1177/0145482x5905300702|s2cid=220593461|issn=0145-482X}} She was supervisor of a day school for emotionally disabled children in Nassau County.{{Cite web|last=Duffy|first=Maureen A.|date=2003|title=Dr. Ruth Kaarlela, Founder of Rehabilitation Teaching/Vision Rehabilitation Therapy|url=https://visionaware.org/everyday-living/essential-skills/vision-rehabilitation-services/vision-rehabilitation-therapists/interview-with-dr-ruth-kaarlela/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=VisionAware|language=en-US}}
From 1963 to 1986, Kaarlela was a professor at Western Michigan University, specializing in vision rehabilitation.{{Cite journal|last=Kaarlela|first=Ruth|date=March 1966|title=Home Teaching—A Description|journal=Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness|language=en-US|volume=60|issue=3|pages=80–83|doi=10.1177/0145482x6606000303|s2cid=220589245|issn=0145-482X}}{{Cite book|last1=Ponchillia|first1=Paul E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cdV-9Oic5XEC&q=Ruth%20Kaarlela&pg=PP7|title=Foundations of Rehabilitation Teaching with Persons who are Blind Or Visually Impaired|last2=Ponchillia|first2=Susan Kay Vlahas|date=1996|publisher=American Foundation for the Blind|isbn=978-0-89128-939-5|language=en}}{{Cite book|last1=Crews|first1=John E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v49L1OznRZAC&q=Ruth%20Kaarlela&pg=PR17|title=Vision Loss in an Aging Society: A Multidisciplinary Perspective|last2=Whittington|first2=Frank J.|date=2000|publisher=American Foundation for the Blind|isbn=978-0-89128-307-2|pages=xvii|language=en}} She was chair of the Department of Blindness and Vision Studies from 1980 to 1986. She taught the school's first course in gerontology, and helped to establish the gerontology degree program. She was chair of the Association of University Educators in Rehabilitation Teaching and Orientation and Mobility and other bodies at the state and national level. In retirement she worked with the American Foundation for the Blind, in a community health program serving Native Americans.Alberta L. Orr and Ruth Kaarlela. [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED368513.pdf "The Seven Module Curriculum on Aging, Vision Loss and Independent Living Skills"] sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind and the Administration on Aging.
In 2001, Kaarlela received the Migel Medal from the American Foundation for the Blind. She was inducted into the American Printing House for the Blind's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Personal life
In retirement, Kaarlela traveled, lived with her widowed sister Edith,{{Cite news|date=2013-12-15|title=Obituary for EDITH E. RASKI|pages=A25|work=Detroit Free Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56286707/obituary-for-edith-e-raski/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}} and was active in the Finnish Cultural Center and the Finnish American Historical Society. She died in 2018, aged 98 years.
References
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Category:Western Michigan University faculty
Category:American social workers
Category:American gerontologists
Category:American people of Finnish descent
Category:Wayne State University alumni