Ruth Davis founded the first synagogue-based Girl Scout troop in Minneapolis, served in state, national and international Girl Scout roles and was the first woman to serve on the board of directors of Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, now in Minnetonka.
She also spent many evenings in waders, fishing in Lake Harriet near her home.
"Ruth was a model for strong, independent women being able to follow their star. She believed that about herself, her daughters, granddaughters and Girl Scouts," said her former rabbi, Barry Cytron. "That's a legacy that will ripple out."
Davis, 95, died of natural causes in her Minneapolis home on Monday, her daughter Maxine Davis said.
Davis grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., and earned a physical education degree at the University of Minnesota, where she competed on the women's hockey, tennis and track teams, her daughter said.
She worked a few years for the YWCA and in 1940, started a Girl Scout troop at Adath Jeshurun in Minneapolis. In 1952, she took a dozen Girl Scouts on a car-camping trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, a newspaper article said. "Mom lived and breathed Girl Scouts," Maxine Davis said.
In the 1950s, she cooked meals for workers at the State Fair rainbow ice cream and sno-cone concession run by her husband, Jim, Davis said. Davis served on the Minneapolis Girl Scout Council's board from 1949 to 1963, followed by nine years on the board of the Girl Scouts USA, said Ruth Lutmer of the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys.
In 1968, at the request of the International Girl Scout Committee, Davis planned and managed the opening ceremony of a global Girl Scout center in Pune, India, Lutmer said. She stayed active into her 90s, and at age 90, she received a pin for 65 years of service to the Girl Scouts.
Davis was an avid traveler and in the 1950s headed Jewish fundraising efforts to help Jews immigrate to Israel. She had a picture of herself with David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, said Cytron, who now teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul.
"She was a woman of immense strength and strong opinions with deep commitments to women's equality," Cytron said. He said she also had a good sense of humor and was a tough Scrabble player.
Davis also is survived by daughter Lynn Davis Wurlitzer, of Hudson, N.Y., and a sister, Theresa Berman, of Minnetonka. Services have been held.
