From the Archives
Ruth Lily (Seidel) Gienapp was born 14 April 1908 at Joplin, Missouri. She attended high school in Freeport, Illinois, and was awarded the English Silver Cup, the Latin Silver Cup, and the General Scholarship Silver Cup upon graduating in 1926. She graduated from Northwestern University and was the first woman to earn an undergraduate chemistry degree. After working for Armour Packing company in Chicago, she began her teaching career at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, MN. She married Norman Gienapp on 18 July 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. They lived in Knoke, Iowa for two years before moving to Concordia in 1944. She taught High School at Saint Paul Lutheran High School and Concordia High School. Ruth died on 30 January 2012 at the age of 103.