Betty Reid Soskin, oldest National Park Service ranger, dies at 104
Dec 21, 2025
(KRON) — Betty Reid Soskin, beloved former Bay Area park ranger, has died, according to her family. She was 104.
Soskin’s family said she passed peacefully at her home in Richmond on Sunday morning.
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“This morni
ng on the Winter Solstice, our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Betty Reid Soskin, passed away peacefully at her home in Richmond, CA at 104 years old. She was attended by family. She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave,” the family wrote.
The family confirmed that there will be a public memorial at a time and place to be announced later.
FILE - National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin smiles during an interview at Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif., July 12, 2016. Soskin, the nation's oldest active park ranger, is hanging up her smokey hat at the age of 100. She retired Thursday, March 31, 2022, after more than 15 years at the park, the National Park Service announced. Soskin "spent her last day providing an interpretive program to the public and visiting with coworkers," a Park Service statement said. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
Her family said those who would like to express their love and respect for Soskin can do so by sending donations to the Betty Reid Soskin Middle School and to support the finishing of her film Sign My Name to Freedom.
Soskin celebrated her 103rd birthday in September and was honored in an intimate celebration in the campus library at Betty Reid Soskin Middle School in El Sobrante.
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