"Ruth-Nita-Barrow" (November 15,1916-December 19,1995)

She was a Jamaican nurse,politician,and administrator.


Ruth  was born in Barbados at Nesfield,St.Lucy,where she trained as a nurse,midwife,and health care administrator,holding  a variety of nursing,public health and public administrator jobs in Barbados and Jamaica in the 1940s & 1950s.Ruth made her cotributions  in several arenas,her most prominent contributions were in nursing education and with the YWCA.She worked on the professional organization of nurses and the establishment of quality nursing education.


Her accomplishments in all arenas in which she chose to work phenomenal.One has only to look at a few of the highlights of her career.Ruth was the first World Health Organization (WHO) Nurse from from the Caribbean,the first president of th Jamaican Nurses,Association,the first Black Caribbean woman to be appointed to a senior post by the Colonial Office in the Caribbean,and the first Black president of the World-Wide YWCA in 1975.


Before her retirement in 1980,she was the first woman  director of the Christian Medical Commission (CMC),which is the health arm of the World Council of Churches.She was the convener of the 1985 nongovernmental organization  (NGO) forum held in Nairobi,Kenya;Barbados' prominent representative to the United Nations;and the only woman on the on the eminent person's group which the Commonwealth Secretarial appointed to attempt a rapprochement in South Africa.The opportunities for training were taken up they came and Ruth moved from nurse to nursing instructor at the school of  Public Health in Jamaica to consultant for the World Health Organization.


Ruth was acclaimed all over the world for her skill,graciousness,and talent in convening the Decade of Women non-governmental forum in Nairobi in 1985.There were over 1,300 workshops and thousands of women from the world over.Many of these women were on opposite sides of  the political fence and Ruth and her staff ensured the smooth running of this potentially volatie event.


In 1986,she was appointed Bardbados' permanent representative to the United Nations.Ruth was in the Commonwealth's eminent person's group that tried to get the opposing parties in South Africa to a negotiating table.


She has receved two honorary doctorates,one from MacMaster University in Canada and one from the University of the West Indies and was made an Honorary Fellow from the Royal College of  Nursing,Great Britian.Ruth was the Governor-general of Barbados from June 1990 until her death.