Services Today for Activist Ruth M. Kahn
Services will be held today for Ruth M. Kahn, an active member of the local Jewish community who dedicated her life to serving others.
A Newport Beach resident, Kahn was 87 when she died July 20 of natural causes at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Norwalk.
Her interest in nutrition began early. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in the same field from the University of Chicago, she went to work in 1941 at a World War II supply factory in Chicago, where she oversaw the feeding of 34,000 people a day.
At the war’s end, she joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, where she directed the establishment of feeding centers for wartime refugees in Europe.
After moving to Orange County in 1971, Kahn worked to establish the Oasis Senior Citizens Center in Corona del Mar and the Jewish Senior Center in Costa Mesa.
She was later appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve on the State Commission on Aging and was selected as Woman of the Year by the Older Women’s League in 1990.
Kahn has no survivors.
Services will be at 3 p.m. at the Jewish Senior Center, 250 E. Baker St., Costa Mesa.
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