Ruth Wiberg lived most of her life in northwest Denver and became an expert on its history — so much so that she wrote a book about it.
Wiberg, who died on Feb. 22, at age 99, wrote “a real landmark on local history,” said Tom Noel, a University of Colorado history professor.
“Hers was really the first major book that was well-received on any neighborhood in Denver,” Noel said.
First printed in 1976 by Wiberg’s family, the book, “Rediscovering Northwest Denver,” is now published by University Press of Colorado and is in its fifth printing.
The book won the 1993 Hubert Humphrey Award for its contribution to the historical appreciation and preservation of northwest Denver.
Noel said he thinks Wiberg did the book “because most of us believe our little corner of the world never gets enough attention, and people love to read about the history of their own block.”
Wiberg gave an estimated 70 speeches about her neighborhood, said her son Paul Wiberg, adding that she “was a wonderful researcher.”
She regularly wrote articles for national magazines, including Redbook and Ladies Home Journal, said another son, Larry Wiberg.
Wiberg’s book is scrupulously researched and full of descriptions of people, public buildings, trends, fashions and ethnic groups, as well as anecdotes.
The book has pictures of a Denver long gone, including a pleasure ship with a ballroom on Sloan’s Lake and a horse-drawn wagon selling Star Bread.
Northwest Denver, an area called Highland or Highlands over the years, was actually several small towns.
In its early days, Highland was a place where wealthy people built huge Victorian homes, believing they were escaping the dirt, grime and crime of Denver.
Trying to keep it pure, citizens approved laws against bad language, gambling, drinking and prostitution.
The area’s most famous citizen was Golda Meir, a graduate of North High School who later became prime minister of Israel.
Ruth Eloise Lowe was born June 28, 1909, in Connersville, Ind., and came to Colorado with her family because her father, Frank Curtis Lowe, had tuberculosis.
Like Meir, Wiberg was a graduate of North High School. Wiberg later worked as a secretary at Swift and Co., a meatpacking company, and as a secretary for Denver Public Schools.
She met her future husband, John Theodore Wiberg, at a dance at the Trocadero Ballroom in Elitch Gardens in northwest Denver.
Her parents were charter members of Highlands United Methodist Church.
She was an assistant organist and was married at the church on Christmas Eve 1938.
Her family held her funeral there.
Her husband died in 1988.
In addition to her sons, she is survived by four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
