Ruth Aileen Hermison Metzler 1922-2025

Family lore holds that when the Standard Oil workday whistle blew at 6 a.m. in Warren, Ohio, on April 14, 1922, it was also blowing to announce the 6 a.m. birth of Ruth Aileen Hermison to parents Elmer “Flick” Hermison (Karhunen) and Hilda Kovisto Hermison. Ruth was born at home in Morgandale into a vibrant, tight-knit and family-centered Finnish immigrant community in northeastern Ohio. The eldest of three children, Ruth excelled at friendships and a social life, an active outdoor life and academic pursuits. A graduate of Howland High School Class of 1940, Ruth was a member of the National Honor Society and achieved a number of other academic and musical honors, playing first-chair clarinet in concert wind ensembles and marching bands.

Ruth’s early life centered around her large Finnish family and St. Mark Lutheran Church, a cultural and spiritual hub for the Finnish community at the time.

After graduating from Howland High School in 1940, Ruth attended business college, then returned to Howland High as the school secretary. As World War II focused the country’s priorities, so did it shift Ruth’s focus as she left Ohio to support the war effort at the Los Angeles port in Long Beach. At the end of the war, Ruth continued her service to the country by working at the Pentagon as an executive assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army. It was during this time that Ruth hosted a dinner party for which there was a last-minute cancellation. One of her other guests brought Howard Charles Metzler, a West Point graduate who was by then a lieutenant colonel in the Army, also working at the Pentagon. Ruth often said that she knew at that dinner party that she would marry Howard, and indeed, Ruth and Howard married in June 1959, a second marriage for each of them. Daughter Lisa followed two years later.

Ruth and Howard enjoyed 53 years of marriage before Howard’s death in 2012. A 50th anniversary party was held in Claremont, California, where Ruth and Howard had settled after annual moves for Howard’s career as an Army officer.

Howard’s final Army assignment was as director of ROTC at the Claremont Colleges, and the Metzlers settled in Claremont as Howard began a second career at Pomona College. Ruth’s longtime interest in music, the fine arts and fashion design was amply supported by the vibrant Claremont community, and her active involvement in the Rembrandt Club, Foothill Philharmonic, Scripps Fine Arts Foundation and other arts-related organizations was deeply meaningful to Ruth. Ruth and Howard’s home in Padua Hills also fed Ruth’s deep love of art, becoming neighbors and friends with many of the prominent artists that also made their homes there. The couple’s mutual love of music led them to seek season tickets to the philharmonic orchestra in every major metropolitan area near where they lived, and the memories of spectacular concerts and soloists at the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic stayed with Ruth throughout her life.

Ruth had a great deal of love and affection for Howard’s children from a first marriage — Bradford, Beverly and Craig. Equally adored were Ruth’s 11 grandchildren, and she cherished her relationships with those grandchildren, limited though some were by geographical distance. Lisa’s children were quite a bit younger than Ruth’s other grandchildren, and living near Ruth in her later years as they did, they were the light of Ruth’s life. She adored Oliver and Charles and died just short of a highly-anticipated Thanksgiving reunion with her beloved Olli and Charlie. Ruth also had a great deal of love and affection for her son-in-law, Richard, who played a large role in her ongoing care and support following Howard’s death, including her move to Woodland Hills into her own home.

In the aftermath of a fall, two caregivers split the job of taking care of Ruth during the day, sharing overnight responsibilities with the family. Her caregivers, Alvin and Macky, became like family to Ruth, and they cared for her as if she were their own family. Ruth was indebted, as is the rest of her family to Alvin and Macky for their warm, compassionate, gentle care, which went beyond the call of just a job to care for and engage with Ruth with respect and affection.

Ruth is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Lisa Metzler and Richard Winslow of Topanga, California; grandchild, Oliver Metzler-Winslow of Eureka, California; grandson, Charles Metzler-Winslow of Westwood, California; sister, Susan Hermison Ridens of Niles; stepchildren, Bradford Metzler of Malaga, Spain, Beverly Metzler Tifft (Stephen) of Lancaster, Pa., and Craig Metzler (Linda) of Mooresville, North Carolina; and stepgrandchildren, Christine, Teresa, Brandon, Jayme, Kathryn, Julia, Michael, Jennifer, Bryce and their respective partners and children. Ruth is also survived by a nephew, Mark Hermison of Minnesota; and a niece, Laurene Hermison of Ohio; as well as extended family on the West Coast, to whom she was very close.

Ruth was preceded in death by her father, Elmer; mother, Hilda; husband, Howard; brother, Edward; and niece, Cynthia.

Ruth will join her late husband, Howard, at the United States Military Academy cemetery in West Point, New York, a site of tremendous meaning for both of them.

Services will begin at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 20, 2026, at Old Cadet Chapel, West Point Cemetery, United States Military Academy, 2107 New South Post Road, West Point, NY 10996.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to an organization near to Ruth’s heart, the Rembrandt Club in Claremont, California, www.therembrandtclub.org.

(special notice)