Oliver, Ruth M. (Ruth Marion), 1923 - 2020
Biographical Information
Ruth Marion (Frier) Shively Oliver was born April 30, 1923 in West Lafayette to Gertrude (Duryea) and George Melrose Frier. She attended Purdue University where she was a member of Gold Peppers and Kappa Alpha Theta, in addition to other student organizations. While at Purdue, Frier was elected as a member of the Student Union Board and President of the Pan-Hellenic Council. After graduation, Frier pursued a master's degree in Nutrition Science at the University of Illinois.
She pursued a career in nutrition, working as a nutrition researcher at Ralston Purina Company, as a hospital and school system dietician, and, upon returning to West Lafayette in 1971, as a dietician for Purdue Residence Halls. After retirement in 1982, Shively volunteered for the Peace Corps, serving as a dietician in a rural hospital in Jamaica from 1989-1991.
In her lifetime, Ruth married twice, first to Harold Shively in 1944 with whom she had three children: John, Peggy, and Tom. She married her second husband, Jim Oliver, in 1997.
Ruth Shively Oliver died on June 9, 2020 in West Lafayette, Indiana at age 97.