Ruth B. Simon

Abstract

Following the 1999 death of physician John L. Simon, a paid obituary in the New York Times described his professional accomplishments. It neglected to mention, however, that he may have unwittingly provided the impetus for his first wife, Ruth B. Simon, to launch a trail-blazing career as a researcher in seismology.⇓ Ruth B. Simon, circa 1978. Ruth took her first job in seismology at Lamont Geological Observatory (known today as Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) in the late 1950s—out of necessity, former colleagues recall, after she was divorced from John and left supporting two children. Simon joined the Seismological Society of America in 1957 and remained a member until 2003. Simon's job at Lamont involved reading the large volume of seismographic records that were collected on a daily basis from a diverse assortment of instruments, including Wood-Anderson, Benioff long- and short-period, and Press-Ewing seismometers. She also prepared the monthly seismic bulletin under the supervision of Frank Press. Simon came to the job with expertise in the interpretation of a different sort of wiggly line: she had experience interpreting electrocardiograms. Working from her desk in Lamont Hall, she read the records and made calculations to determine distance …