Ruth Shellhorn Biography
Ruth Patricia Shellhorn was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 21, 1909. Her parents, Dr. Arthur L. Shellhorn and Lodema Gould Shellhorn, promoted the ideals of hard work and self-determination and were socially progressive, encouraging their daughter at an early age to identify a profession that would make use of her mathematical skills and artistic abilities. Seeking career advice from her neighbor, the already well-known landscape designer Florence Yoch, Shellhorn was attracted to a career that would provide regular contact with the out-of-doors. She decided to become a landscape architect when she was fifteen years old.
Shellhorn left California in 1927 to attend the Oregon State College (University), School of Landscape Architecture. An outstanding student, she earned recognition with a number of accolades. She was the first woman to win the Alpha Zeta Scholarship Cup for highest grades in the School of Agriculture. In addition, she won the Clara Waldo Prize for Most Outstanding Freshman Woman, was named Phi Kappa Phi in her junior year, and earned a national award in a Beaux-Arts design competition.
Seeking to expand her design repertoire, Shellhorn transferred to Cornell University鈥檚 College of Architecture in 1930 where she, again, achieved distinction for her design work and service to the academic community. Capturing the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal for most outstanding Design in a collaborative senior project, she also served as President of Psi Chapter Kappa Kappa Gamma and was named national architect for her sorority for five years. Unable to afford a final year away at college, Shellhorn left Cornell in 1933, four units short of her degree. During a review of department records, it was discovered that Shellhorn had completed enough units to earn two degrees. Cornell University belatedly granted Shellhorn her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Bachelor of Architecture degrees in June, 2005.