Ruth really helped me in my data-gathering of blood from least terns throughout the United States. I was able to show, by sampling blood from populations in California, the Mississippi River, Massachusetts, Maine, and at Ruth's colonies in Virginia, that there was gene flow among these disparate populations.
I recall accompanying her one island colony, with my 8 year old daughter Hanna, and finding that dogs had gotten onto the colony since Ruth's last visit, and there were only two chicks left. We did not take any blood from them, but Ruth had banded them earlier, so she was still following them when we departed. And she related to me after I left the dates they had fledged, and she also said that she had named them after my daughters, Hanna and Emma (my 3 year old who couldn't make it that trip). She was a good scientist and a very warm human being, and that is sometimes a rare combination.
I still miss her.