There is no good way to describe what a pleasure Ruth is. There's nothing that can beat hearing her quick laugh, her genuine voice or her common sense advice...except if it's hearing her incredible stories about fearlessly following her life mission: "If you have to do something, you do it. If you have a problem to solve, you solve it."

Ruth's to-do list began at her father's, Dr. Mark L. Morris', animal hospital, the first of its kind in the nation. As a small girl in the 1930s, Ruth and her mother worked at the hospital, which they lived above; her mother fulfilling secretarial duties and Ruth helping complete forms, draw blood and answer the phone. It was during this time that Ruth "fell in love with animals."

While at the hospital, Dr. Morris developed a dog food, which he called Prescription Diet, for the first seeing-eye dog, Buddy. As the business turned from an around-the-clock, hand-packing establishment to a machine packaging process, Dr. Morris decided that for every can sold, 1/2 a cent would be given to the Buddy Foundation. This foundation became known as the Morris Animal Foundation, and today is the largest non-governmental, animal health organization in the world. As a collegian, Ruth became treasurer of this foundation and continued to develop her love of animals.

After deciding that biology and chemistry weren't for her, and proving so through her grades, Ruth began studying journalism, an interest of hers since high school. And although a cousin predicted that she would be the "Betty Crocker of the dog world," Ruth graduated with her degree in journalism.

After living in San Francisco, Topeka, Kansas and New York City, Ruth settled in Colorado where she rented a house for $95 a month and found a public relations job with an advertising agency. It was at this agency that she met Claude Ramsey, who proposed developing a joint public relations firm. Ruth not only had a talent in public relations, but she also had an outlet: they would work with the Morris Animal Foundation. "It was exciting because Claude and I clicked as far as PR," Ruth says. Soon, Ruth also made another "click."

"...that sounds like fun."

After they were married, Tom was named the youngest President of the American Society of Travel Agents. The couple began traveling all over the world so Tom could give speeches and hold conventions for the society. Tom and Ruth were two of the last people to eat dinner with the king and queen of Greece, they fled from a hotel's bombed ashcan, dodged bullets during Castro's take-over in Cuba and fled from political unrest in the Philippines.

To make this last escape, Tom and Ruth took the last plane out of the country and landed in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia where a friend asked if they wanted to see orangutans in their natural habitat. Although they carried with them only formal wear, adventure was always a top priority for Tom and Ruth. Buying clothes from an old World War II military supply store, they visited the orangutans and found them fascinating. Soon after this trip, a tour operator opened an office in Rwanda. A woman who worked for Tom traveled to the country and when she saw the gorillas, took a picture of the animals in their natural habitat. Ruth thought, "if [she] can do it, I can do it." And Ruth did; not just once, but several times.

During one of these trips to Africa, Claude Ramsey, Tom and Ruth along with another couple, traveled to Ruhengeri. While they were at their motel, a guest mentioned that Dian Fossey had just returned from Cambridge and had been seen riding a motor scooter nearby. It was 1984. Ruth and the San Diego Zoo were co-sponsoring a trustee meeting for the Morris Animal Foundation. The subject of the meeting was, "if the wild is all gone, how to sustain primates." Ruth and the zoo invited 58 people to discuss the question and Ruth thought Dian could speak on the topic from direct experience. According to Ruth, after she worked up enough courage to ask Dian, she said yes she would speak so she could get to California and undergo eye surgery.