Ruth Steward (née Silberschmidt) passed away on the morning of January 2, 2025.
Ruth was born in Basel, Switzerland, on September 19, 1944, to Robert and Elizabeth Emma Silberschmidt-Veraguth. The night of her birth marked the first time streetlights were illuminated after a long blackout during World War II.
Ruth had a joyful childhood alongside her siblings Sabine, Martin, and Richard. In 1948, the family moved to a large home with a garden in Bruderholz, a vibrant suburb where children played freely in the fields and streets. She formed a lifelong friendship with Christina Lüscher-Ballard in kindergarten, a bond that endured throughout their lives.
As a child, Ruth was frequently tasked with accompanying her brother Richard, who had polio, on school outings, birthday parties, and summer camps. Often the youngest participant, she was doted on and occasionally allowed to bend the rules. With their parents attending international pharmacological congresses during the summer, Ruth and Richard spent many summers in mountain camps throughout Switzerland.
Ruth attended Mädchen Gymnasium, a public girls’ school in Basel, where she pursued a classical curriculum that included French, Latin, and English, alongside mathematics and sciences. She had an innate curiosity about different cultures, nurtured by family trips across Europe. These travels left a lasting impression on her, particularly the poverty she witnessed in post-war Italy and Spain.
Eager to explore the world, Ruth studied at the École d’études sociales in Geneva, earning a degree as a medical technologist in 1965. She then moved to Los Angeles to work as a technician, following her brother Martin and his wife. The cultural contrast between Switzerland and California was striking, but she embraced the era’s vibrant social movements, including the anti-Vietnam War protests and the rise of feminism.
In Los Angeles, she met David Steward, a friend of her brother who worked in the Forest Service and wrote books. Inspired by his passion, Ruth realized she needed a fulfilling career of her own. She and David returned to Switzerland, married in April 1971, and she pursued undergraduate studies in biology, later earning a Ph.D. from the University of Basel in 1978.
The late 1970s were a difficult period for Ruth, as she lost both her brother Richard and her father Robert within a short time. However, she found solace in her research at the laboratory of Walter Gehring, where she became deeply interested in genetics. This passion led her to the University of Virginia, where she joined the laboratory of esteemed Drosophila geneticist T.R.F. Wright. Her groundbreaking research on the dorsal gene, crucial for embryonic development, took her and David to Tübingen, Germany, and later to Princeton University, where she successfully cloned and characterized the gene.
Ruth’s contributions to molecular biology were significant, helping to demonstrate genetic conservation between species and uncovering key developmental pathways. Despite facing challenges as a female scientist in a male-dominated field, she made lasting impacts through her research and mentorship.
In 1994, Ruth became a full professor at the Waksman Institute, where she taught until the spring of 2024. She found great joy in guiding students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world. She particularly cherished the cultural exchanges in her lab, where students celebrated the holidays with dishes from their home countries. Many former students visited her in the final weeks of her life.
Beyond academia, Ruth and David traveled extensively, taking yearly trips to destinations across Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. Some of their most treasured adventures included sailing the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Galapagos, Indonesia, and Fiji with David’s longtime friend, David Dillard.
Ruth maintained close ties with her Swiss family, including her sister Sabine and many Silberschmidt and Veraguth cousins. She shared a special bond with Tenzin Dolma (Monica Silberschmidt), with whom she traveled the U.S. in 1967, and Catherine Silberschmidt, with whom she and David spent time in the Swiss mountains. Her lifelong friendship with Claude, a fellow art and literature enthusiast, was another source of great intellectual and personal fulfillment.
A particularly close relationship in Ruth and David’s life was with Botagoz Temirbayeva, an English teacher from Kazakhstan. They met on a flight from New York to San Francisco when Bota was traveling to California as a camp counselor. She later visited Princeton, decided to stay, and earned a degree in Reading and Language Arts. Over the years, she lived with the Stewards on and off for more than a decade, and they became dear friends.
In her final months, Ruth was supported by her nephew Tom, who traveled from Switzerland to be with her. In her final weeks, her niece Eva Silberschmidt-Viala, her nephew Noah Silberschmidt, and Bota Temirbayeva were also by her side.
Ruth will be deeply missed by her family, friends, colleagues, and former students, whose lives she enriched through her kindness, intellect, and unwavering passion for science and learning.
A celebration of life for Ruth and David Steward will be held at the Quaker Meeting House in Princeton on June 7 at 11 a.m. If you plan to attend, please RSVP by May 1 to Beth Behrend at [email protected].
Arrangements are under the direction of Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.
