Ruth Alden Haynes

Ruth Alden Wood Haynes, born on March 28, 1928, passed away peacefully at home in San Mateo on February 14, 2025. She was the beloved wife for over 63 years to the late Gilman B. Haynes, Jr. (2012). Ruth was born as the youngest of three sisters in Berkeley, California to Henry Allyn Wood and Jean Wright Wood.  She lived most of her life in Northern California and was a long-time resident of San Mateo.  She was preceded in death by her dear sisters, Eleanor Jean Daggett and Julia McDermott Kramer.

 

Ruth is survived by her loving sons and daughters-in-laws, Geoffrey Ballard Haynes (Susan) and David Allyn Haynes (Lynzie), grandchildren Charles Allyn Haynes (Jennifer), Forrest Montgomery Haynes (May), John Alden Haynes and Allyn Huntington Haynes, and great-granddaughter Evelyn Ruth Haynes.

 

Ruth graduated from Head Royce School in 1945 and the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949.  She took great pride, along with her mother and sisters, in being a member of the Alpha Phi sorority, the Prytanean Society, and Torch and Shield at Cal; the National Society of Colonial Dames; the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society; and the John Alden Society.  She was also a long-time member of the Town and Country Club, the Hillsborough Racquet Club and the Burlingame Country Club.

 

She was a lifetime leader and volunteer in many community organizations.  These include: member of the Junior League of San Francisco, Chairman of the Junior League of San Mateo, President of the Junior League of Sacramento, President of the Family Service Agency of Sacramento, and member of St. Vincent de Paul in Sacramento, Family Service Agency in San Mateo, and AbilityPath.  She was a Board Member of Edgewood Center for Children and a Trustee for the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

 

Raised a Congregationalist, for the last 65 years of her life she was an active leader and member of her local Episcopal church in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and finally St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Burlingame.

 

An enthusiastic athlete in many sports, Ruth loved tennis in particular, playing from an early age at the Berkeley Tennis Club all the way into her eighties.

 

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday. March 15, 2025, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Burlingame (415 El Camino Real, Burlingame, CA) with a reception immediately following in the church parish hall.

 

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations in her memory be made to any of the following: AbilityPath of Redwood City https://abilitypath.org/, Mission Hospice https://www.missionhospice.org/, or St Paul’s Episcopal Church https://www.stpaulsburlingame.org.