Ruth Forbes Young (October 4, 1903,

Milton, Massachusetts Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. ...

– 5 March 1998,

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

) was a member of the

Forbes family The Forbes family is one of the components of the Boston Brahmins—they are a wealthy extended American family long prominent in Boston, Massachusetts. The family's fortune originates from trading opium and tea between North America and China ...

and a founder of the

International Peace Academy The International Peace Institute (IPI, formerly the International Peace Academy) is an independent non-profit lobby group based in New York (beside the headquarters of the United Nations, with which IPI works closely). The institute has regional ...

in 1970. She also co-founded Berkeley's Institute for the Study of Consciousness with her third husband,

Arthur M. Young Arthur Middleton Young (November 3, 1905 – May 30, 1995) was an American inventor, helicopter pioneer, cosmologist, philosopher, astrologer, and author. Young was the designer of Bell Helicopter's first helicopter, the Model 30, and inventor ...

Background and family life

Forbes was a member of the Massachusetts

, being the daughter of Ralph Emerson Forbes and Elise Cabot. She was a great-granddaughter of

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

and a niece of

William Cameron Forbes William Cameron Forbes (May 21, 1870 – December 24, 1959) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He served as Governor-General of the Philippines, governor-general of the Philippines from 1909 to 1913 and ambassador of the United States ...

(

Governor-General of the Philippines The Governor-General of the Philippines (Spanish: ''Gobernador y Capitán General de Filipinas''; Filipino: ''Gobernador-Heneral ng Pilipinas/Kapitan Heneral ng Pilipinas''; Japanese: ) was the title of the government executive during the colon ...

1908 - 1913). Forbes married architect

Lyman Paine George Lyman Paine Jr. (November 16, 1901 – July 1, 1978), was an American architect and radical left activist. He is known for his work with the Correspondence Publishing Committee with his second wife Frances Drake Paine, and was closely ...

in the mid-1920s; they moved together from Boston to New York, where Forbes' friend

Mary Bancroft Mary Bancroft (October 29, 1903, Boston – January 10, 1997, New York City) was an American novelist and spy and a member of the Bancroft family, which at one time owned Dow Jones & Company. In 1942, while living in Switzerland, Bancroft was re ...

described them as hosting "wonderful parties in their West Side apartment". Forbes and Paine divorced in the 1930s after having two children, Cameron Paine and

Michael Paine Michael Ralph Paine (June 25, 1928 – March 1, 2018) was an American engineer. He became notable after the John F. Kennedy assassination, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, because he was an acquaintance of the President's assassin Lee ...

.Enid Nemy, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 15 March 1998
Ruth F. Young, 94, Founded An Academy to Promote Peace
/ref> A second marriage, in the early 1940s to Dr. Giles Thomas, was cut short by the latter's death. Forbes married

in 1948.

Career

Forbes studied painting at the Arts Student League, and her still lifes and landscapes were exhibited in New York and Philadelphia. She produced ballets in Santa Barbara, designing sets and costumes herself.Andrea Loomis, arthuryoung.com
In Memoriam: Ruth Forbes Young, 1903-1998
/ref> Forbes joined the

World Federalist The World Federalist Movement advocates strong democratic institutions adhering to the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and democracy. The movement formed in the 1930s and 1940s by citizens groups concerned that the structure of the new ...

Movement after the dropping of atomic bombs in 1945. Later wanting to go beyond this, she consulted with United Nations General Secretary

U Thant Thant (; ; January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He held t ...

about setting up an international academy to support international diplomatic efforts towards peace. Thant recommended getting in touch with

Indar Jit Rikhye Indar Jit Rikhye (30 July 1920 – 21 May 2007) was a major general in the Indian Army who served as military adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and U Thant in the 1960s. As military advisor, he was responsible ...

, who went on to become the

first President. Forbes provided the Academy's initial funding, and continued to support it financially. In 1972 Forbes also co-founded Berkeley's Institute for the Study of Consciousness with her third husband,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes Young, Ruth 1903 births 1998 deaths People from Milton, Massachusetts

Ruth Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Arka ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson