In remembrance of Ruth Interiano

Ruth Interiano (née Lang, formerly Bult) · 1934–2019

Ruth Margaret Lang was born to Elsie Lang (née Goodberlet) and Charles E. Lang on May 23, 1934. Ruth was born and grew up on a farm on Pinnacle Road in Henrietta, a rural community just south of Rochester, NY.

As an only child in a rural community, Ruth was pressed into service on her parent’s farm. Farm life was both happy and hard. After school each day she would work in the fields with her father. Few things were more special to her than caring for the animals; this would become a lifelong love.

Ruth Lang, aged 15, with some of the animals on her family’s farm.

Ruth’s childhood friend Barbara Miller lived across the street: “When she came back to the house from working in fields with her father, we could talk. We were both afraid of her dad and had special whistles to signal the coast was clear: I would whistle ‘can you come to the window?’ And if all was well, she would give a short whistle — I would go over on to the porch and she would come to the window inside.”

Ruth graduated from Rush-Henrietta Roth in 1952, attended Rochester Business Institute, then received her BA in Business Administration / Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Ruth, aged 24, having dinner with her parents and boyfriend John Bult (not pictured).

Ruth at her desk with coworker Rosemary at the Arabian-American Oil Company, NYC, c1958.

Ruth met and married John F. Bult in Rochester, NY, and they married in New York City, where they lived while John completed studies at Columbia University and Ruth worked as a secretary for the Arabian American Oil Company.

Ruth & John Bult.

Ruth with her best friend Barbara Miller in New York City (L) and Poughkeepsie, NY (R).

Ruth & John (aping for the camera) in their New York City apartment.

After John’s graduation the couple both began new jobs in Poughkeepsie, NY — John as an engineer at IBM and Ruth as secretary to the dean of Vassar College. They built a new home in nearby Wappingers Falls. They vacationed regularly with the extended Bult family at Hay Bay, on the north side of Lake Ontario in Canada, where fishing and swimming were some of the favorite pastimes. They became active in the Christian Reformed Church, often hosting traveling Calvinist youth groups — known as SWIM Teams — in their home.

John’s graduation day (L), and Ruth inspecting construction progress in Wappingers Falls (R).

Ruth with her beloved cat Sassafras (and her nearly-as-loved 1967 Chevy Impala) in Wappingers Falls, NY.

Ruth laughs with her mother-in-law, Alberta Bult (L), and fishing (R) in Ontario, Canada.

In or around 1969 IBM transferred John to Des Plaines, near Chicago, IL. In Chicago they adopted a baby boy, who they named Mark John Bult.

Ruth with infant Mark.

Left: Ruth, Elsie, and Mark at Christmastime in Rochester, NY. Right: Ruth & John Bult in Des Plaines, IL, 1970.

In the 1970s John was again transferred by IBM, this time to the Scientific Center in Palo Alto, CA; the family moved to Saratoga, a suburb in what later became known as Silicon Valley.

Elsie Lang, toddler Mark, and Ruth exploring the outdoors during Elsie’s first visit to California.

First visit to the San Francisco Zoo.

Ruth worked as a receptionist at Mark’s grade school, St. Andrew’s. “She took me to the local library many times,” remembered Mark. “She was an avid reader her entire life, and she read to me often when I was a kid; it’s probably why I’m an avid reader too.”

Ruth in the office at St. Andrew’s School in Saratoga, CA.

John and Ruth both became very active in the burgeoning Palo Alto Christian Reformed Church, about 20 minutes away from their home. She played the organ and sang in the choir, while he was a deacon. Along with the church community they helped build an expansion to the church, adding classrooms and more, allowing it to grow considerably over ensuing years.

Construction additions to the Palo Alto Christian Reformed Church.

The Bult family after Sunday church services. You can tell it’s the ’70s.

In summertime the family hosted many pool parties at their Saratoga home, which were a favorite of coworkers, neighbors, and parishioners.

Summertime in the early 1970s at the Bult household.

The Bult family enjoyed traveling in California, visiting Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, the Golden Gate, and Disneyland. One of their enduring favorites was the coastal beaches of Santa Cruz, just a 40-minute drive from home.

A dip in Lake Tahoe (L) and Ruth & Mark above Yosemite Valley (R).

Ruth in the Sierra Nevada, with Lake Tahoe in the background.

Ruth and Mark meet Winnie the Pooh at Disneyland.

“I remember my parents asking me if I wanted to go on the Matterhorn,” recalled Mark of their Disneyland trip. “I took one look at that roller coaster in a giant mountain and said ‘No way!’ They both went on it separately, one staying with me while the other rode the coaster. When they got back they both said I made the right choice — my mom looked practically sick.”

Ruth loved music and loved to sing. She played the organ and sung in various choral groups and choirs. “I remember her driving down the road and we were singing along to John Denver songs at full volume on the radio,” recalls her son.

Ruth and John divorced in 1978.

Ruth and George Interiano.

Ruth moved to Sunnyvale, CA, and married George Interiano, a concrete contractor and immigrant from Mexico. She helped run his business for many years, as bookkeeper, scheduler, and later as an officer in the newly incorporated company.

She was thrilled by George’s ranch in Alviso, CA, as it hearkened back to her childhood on the farm. She loved caring for the many animals and at any given time they had two or three dozen head of cattle, a handful of horses, and the occasional menagerie of pigs, goats, and chickens.

Mark recalled one memorable rush to the veterinarian’s office to treat a desperately sick calf: “We didn’t have any other way to get it there in a hurry other than her car, a big blue Chevrolet with bench seats. So we shoved the calf into the back seat on its side, and raced down the highway, with me practically sitting on the frightened calf to keep if from kicking out the windows! We got a lot of weird looks on the highway.”

Left: Ruth’s favorite horse, Hippo, and her son Mark. Right: Ruth and Oscar Interiano either serenading or roasting George for his birthday — or perhaps both.

Ruth gained a stepson in the new marriage, George Jr.. Neither Mark nor George lived with the couple full-time, but they often spent weekends and summers with them. George Jr. later died in his 20s.

The family lived in Sunnyvale, and later San Jose, CA. Their ranch was located first in Alviso, then Almaden, and later the hills of Milpitas.

George & Ruth (pictured among the crowd in the upper-left, Ruth in red-framed sunglasses) presented several rodeos in the late 1970s in Mexico.

Ruth went along with many of George Sr.’s far-fetched business ideas, but her favorite was likely a series of rodeo events they produced in various cities in Mexico in the 1980s. Several times, a tiny convoy of trucks with animal trailers headed from Northern California to Mexico laden with everything from horses to cattle chutes and saddles. On a later trip, personnel and supplies would ride in a second-hand school bus that had most of its seats removed. George’s brother, Oscar Interiano, was a well-known ranchera singer and recording artist, and one of the star attractions of the rodeo treks.

On one of these drives, one of the trucks and trailers drove off the road, tumbling down a steep hillside. The truck, trailer and all the chutes were destroyed, but somehow all the passengers were thrown free during the accident. Badly bruised, Ruth called it a miracle that they all survived.

Ruth worked at several businesses in the 1980s, including American Hospital Supply Corp., American Scientific Products, and Porsche America, before taking a position at the City of Palo Alto’s community-owned Utilities Department. She was the executive secretary to the Utilities Director Richard Young for many years, until her retirement in 2001.

Ruth always said the City of Palo Alto was her favorite job with her favorite people.

Ruth loved her work and especially her coworkers at the City of Palo Alto. When someone retired she would often pen a long poem about their life and read it at their retirement party. She was buoyed up by the relationships she made in her many years in Palo Alto.

She was a devoted fan of the San Francisco 49ers for decades, sporting their colors and cheering them on with glee against their nemesis — and her husband’s favorites — the Dallas Cowboys. You could always find Ruth in a crowd easier because she was the one wearing a red and gold 49ers jacket or sweatshirt. It didn’t hurt that red had always been her favorite color.

In the 1980s Ruth’s mother Elsie developed dementia and moved West to live with them in San Jose, CA. Her dementia escalated rapidly and she became sick and died in 1987.

Ruth’s husband George was deported to Mexico and their relationship became distant and strained. He left her with considerable debt and uncompleted business responsibilities. He would die in Mexico. She spent years trying to pay off their debts but became more and more buried by the financial liabilities, and turned to get-rich-quick and work-at-home schemes to try to make ends meet, burying herself deeper.

Ruth took in a developmentally disabled younger friend and her daughter. Together they cared for the child for years. This would be a pattern that Ruth followed with other children, often when a single parent needed physical or financial assistance, or a place to live. Ruth became a surrogate mother or grandmother to many of them.

Ruth and Annette.

“She was a second mom, a friend,” remembered Annette Berthold. “We got into trouble together, out of trouble. I loved her dearly and often think of her.”

It didn’t always work out so well. Ruth took in a family member as a roommate who manipulated and stole from her for years. Ruth’s abiding kindness forced her to always help others, sometimes even to her own detriment. “She was very, very kind. But she was also too nice for her own good,” said her son. “It got her in trouble sometimes, when people would take advantage of her.”

After retirement in 2001 Ruth filled her time by volunteering as a receptionist at the Palo Alto Employees Credit Union and at the nonprofit Acterra.

Ruth and Annette enjoying Cicero’s Pizza in San Jose (L) and visiting the Golden Gate Bridge (R).

Ruth & daughter-in-law Velma atop San Francisco’s Twin Peaks.

Ruth at the 50th anniversary of the Palo Alto Christian Reformed Church (2010), which she helped build in its early years, and which welcomed her back in her elder years.

Friends and family threw Ruth a birthday party in the park.

In her senior years she rekindled her relationship with the church in Palo Alto that she hadn’t attended for decades. They welcomed her back with open arms, and were a much-needed support network for her. She still loved to sing, and joined the choir.

Her kindness shone when her ex-husband John Bult suffered a health crisis in his senior years that kept him bedridden for a year, in multiple hospitals. Despite their near-estrangement for many years, Ruth visited him almost daily and for many months cared for him nearly as much as the nurses, until his death.

Ruth with grandson Oliver Bult.

Ruth adored her only grandson Oliver but her advancing age and hearing difficulties sometimes made it hard for her to interact with him. “Don’t get old,” she’d tell people, “It sucks!”

Nevertheless, she read books for Oliver before he could read, never ceased to be amazed as he grew up so fast, and always loved him with a full heart.

Ruth with her grandson Oliver.

Left: Ruth with daughter-in-law Velma and son Mark, after a seafood dinner in San Francisco. Right: Ruth, Oliver, Velma, and Luke Seerveld helped Ruth move into her new home in San Leandro, CA, closer to her family in Oakland.

She always preferred to keep busy and had an unending need to help others. She volunteered to man the small shop in the senior housing community where she lived in Belmont, CA.

When Ruth could no longer drive, friends volunteered to help her by bringing her to church on Sundays. She always found it harder to accept help than to give it.

Ruth (center) with some of her fellow high school classmates in 2012.

Ruth’s high school class of 1952 held a 50th reunion in 2002 but she was unable to return to New York at the time. Ten years later, however, she got the opportunity to see some of them again for the first time in half a century, when she travelled to Henrietta and environs for the last time in 2012.

Ruth (center) enjoying a Canadian sunset with the Bults.

Mark and Ruth enjoy ice cream in St. Louis.

In 2017 Ruth relocated to St. Louis, MO, to be near her only remaining family — son Mark, daughter-in-law Velma, and grandson Oliver. Living nearby so they could see each other often, she enjoyed spaghetti dinners at Mark and Velma’s home, trips to the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden, and sampling the local ice cream parlors. Ruth had a notorious sweet tooth.

Even after her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s and as her own physicality declined, Ruth would help her roommate and others in the assisted living community she lived in, as she was one of the more able-bodied residents. She even struck up a romantic partnership with one of the residents.

Ruth M. Interiano suffered a heart attack on August 21, while eating lunch. She died of heart failure at St. Louis University Hospital in the early hours of August 22, 2019.

Ruth, Velma, and Oliver enjoying the roses at the Missouri Botanical Garden, about a week before Ruth’s passing.

Gifts in memoriam

Should you wish to make a gift in Ruth’s memory, please consider a donation to Palo Alto Christian Reformed Church, which was a safety net for Ruth in a time when she desperately needed it. Alternatively, please support a local animal shelter in your area. Ruth was devoted to the many four-legged companions she had throughout life: Sassafras, Hippo, Bullet, Georgia, Tyson, Puppy, and Sparky, to name a few.

Ruth loved all animals.

Left: Ruth, grandson Oliver, and son Mark, in Ontario, Canada, 2012. Right: Ruth with her beloved Sparky, in San Leandro, CA, 2015.