This week’s #SundayScientistShoutout is Betty Reid Soskin (born 1921)!

Soskin is a ranger with the @NationalParkService and at the age of 99, she is still serving as a ranger.

The oldest ranger to ever work as a National Park Ranger!

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#DiversityinSTEM
#WomeninWildlife

Soskin was born in Detroit to Lousisanna Natives with Creole and Cajun backgrounds.

She spent her early childhood in New Orleans, LA until a hurricane/flood caused them to move to Oakland, CA.

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#SundayScientistShoutout
During WWII, Soskin worked as a clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, a Jim Crow all-black union auxiliary where she assisted Black American workers who had to move frequently.

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#SundayScientistShoutout
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After this, Soskin and her husband (Mel Reid) started a small black-owned business (Reid's Records) specializing in Gospel music before moving to Walnut Creek, CA, in the 1950s so their children could attend better schools.

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In Walnut Creek, they were faced with racism after moving into a white suburb

This lead Soskin to became an active member of the Black Caucus of the Unitarian Universalist Assoc. - becoming a songwriter in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s

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#SundayScientistShoutout
Soskin also served as a rep for CA State Assemblywomen Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock, where she aided in the early planning stages and development of a park to memorialize women’s role on the Home Front during World War II.

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Soskin’s work lead to the formation of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park was established in 2000 to create a place for people to remember the contributions women made towards WWII efforts.

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Soskin’s increased involvement with this process lead her to become a park ranger for @NatlParkService in her 80s!

She regularly conducts park tours and serves as an interpreter to visitors, explaining its history, sites, and museum collections.

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#SundayScientistShoutout
Soskin has received many awards over her on-going career as an activist and ranger, including

CA Woman of the Year - 1995
Builders of Communities & Dreams by National Women’s History Project - 2006

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https://t.co/FVJeY1MWIs
Soskin also received

WAVE award for "Women of Achievement" -2010
National WWII Museum Silver Service Medallion -2016
Robin W. Winks Award For Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks - 2018

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Soskin also received congressional recognition from Mark DeSaulnier in 2020.

She also released a memoir entitled “Sign My Name to Freedom” in 2018.

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#DiversityinSTEM
#SundayScientistShoutout
#WomeninWildlife
Park Ranger Soskin has said (commenting on her life in 2015 at the age of 93)

"Wish I'd had [the] confidence when the young Betty needed it to navigate through the hazards of everyday life on the planet. But maybe…”

[continued]
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#DiversityinSTEM
#SundayScientistShoutout
“...I'm better able to benefit from having it now – when I have the maturity to value, it and the audacity to wield it for those things held dear."

Another inspiring and motivating #SundayScientistShoutout!

(13/n)
#DiversityinSTEM
#WomeninWildlife

More from History

THREAD: With #silversqueeze trending on Twitter, it appears that this week's market spectacle may well be in the silver market.

A perfect moment for a thread on the Hunt Brothers and their alleged attempt to corner the silver market...


1/ First, let's set the stage.

The Hunt Brothers - Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt, and Lamar Hunt - were the sons of Texas tycoon H.L. Hunt.

H.L. Hunt had amassed a billion-dollar fortune in the oil industry.

He died in 1974 and left that fortune to his family.


2/ After H.L.'s passing, the Hunt Brothers had taken over the family holdings and successfully managed to expand the Hunt empire.

By the late 1970s, the family's fortune was estimated to be ~$5 billion.

In the financial world, the Hunt name was as good as gold (or silver!).


3/ But the 1970s were a turbulent time in America.

Following the oil crisis of the early 1970s, the U.S. had entered a period of stagflation - a dire macroeconomic condition characterized by high inflation, low growth, and high unemployment.


4/ The Hunt Brothers - particularly Nelson Bunker and William Herbert - believed that the inflationary environment would persist and destroy the value of their family's holdings.

To hedge this risk, they turned to silver.

They began buying the metal at ~$3 per ounce in 1973.

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