Grandmother, long-time Claremont resident was 103

Long-time Claremont resident Ruth Metzler died peacefully at her home in Woodland Hills on November 17, 2025.

Family lore holds that when the Standard Oil workday whistle blew at 6 a.m. in Warren, Ohio on April 14, 1922, it was also blowing to announce the 6 a.m. birth of Ruth Aileen Hermison to parents Elmer “Flick“ Hermison (Karhunen) and Hilda (Kovisto) Hermison. Ruth was born at home into a vibrant, tight knit, and family-centered Finnish immigrant community in northeastern Ohio. The eldest of three children, she excelled at friendships and a social life; an active outdoors life; and academic pursuits. She was a member of the National Honor Society, and achieved a number of other academic and musical honors, playing first chair clarinet in concert wind ensembles and marching bands. Her early life centered around her large Finnish family and St. Mark Lutheran Church, a cultural and spiritual hub for the Finnish community at the time.

After graduating from Howland High School with the class of 1940, she attended business college, then returned to her alma mater as the school secretary. As World War II focused the country’s priorities, so did it shift her focus as she left Ohio to support the war effort at the Los Angeles port in Long Beach. At the end of the war, she continued her service to the country by working at the Pentagon as an executive assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army. “It was during this time that Ruth hosted a dinner party for which there was a last-minute cancellation,” her family shared. “One of her other guests brought Howard Charles Metzler, a West Point graduate who was by then a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, also working at the Pentagon. Ruth often said that she knew at that dinner party that she would marry Howard and, indeed, Ruth and Howard married in June of 1959, a second marriage for each of them.” Daughter Lisa followed two years later. The couple enjoyed 53 years of marriage before Howard’s death in 2012. A 50th anniversary party was held in Claremont, where they had settled after annual moves for his career as an Army officer.

His final Army assignment was as director of ROTC at the Claremont Colleges, and the Metzlers settled in Claremont as he began a second career at Pomona College. Her long-time interest in music, the fine arts, and fashion design was amply supported by the vibrant Claremont community, and her active involvement in the Rembrandt Club, Foothill Philharmonic, Scripps Fine Arts Foundation, and other arts-related organizations was deeply meaningful to her. The family home in Padua Hills also fed her deep love of art, becoming neighbors and friends with many of the prominent artists that also made their homes there. The couple’s mutual love of music led them to seek season tickets to the philharmonic orchestra in every major metropolitan area near where they lived, and the memories of spectacular concerts and soloists at the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic stayed with her throughout her life.

“Ruth had a great deal of love and affection for Howard’s children from a first marriage, Bradford, Beverly, and Craig,” her family said. “Equally adored were Ruth’s 11 grandchildren, and she cherished her relationships with those grandchildren, limited though some were by geographical distance. Lisa’s children were quite a bit younger than Ruth’s other grandchildren, and living near Ruth in her later years as they did, were the light of Ruth’s life. She adored Oliver and Charles, and died just short of a highly-anticipated Thanksgiving reunion with her beloved Olli and Charlie. Ruth also had a great deal of love and affection for her son-in-law, Richard, who played a large role in her ongoing care and support following Howard’s death, including her move to Woodland Hills into her own home.”

In the aftermath of a fall, two caregivers split the job of taking care of her during the day, sharing overnight responsibilities with the family. “Her caregivers, Alvin and Macky, became like family to Ruth and they cared for her as if she were their own family,” her family said. “Ruth was indebted as is the rest of her family to Alvin and Macky for their warm, compassionate, gentle care which went beyond the call of just a job to care for and engage with Ruth with respect and affection.”

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Lisa Metzler and Richard Winslow of Topanga, California; grandchild Oliver Metzler–Winslow of Eureka, California; grandson Charles Metzler-Winslow of Westwood, California; sister Susan Hermison Ridens of Niles, Ohio; step-children Bradford Metzler of Malaga, Spain, Beverly Metzler Tifft (Stephen) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Craig Metzler (Linda) of Mooresville, North Carolina; and step-grandchildren Christine, Teresa, Brandon, Jayme, Kathryn, Julia, Michael, Jennifer, Bryce, and their respective partners and children. She is also survived by nephew Mark Hermison of Minnesota and niece Laurene Hermison of Ohio, and extended family on the West Coast to whom she was very close.

She was preceded in death by her father Elmer, mother Hilda; husband Howard; brother Edward; and niece Cynthia. “Ruth will join her late husband Howard at the United States Military Academy cemetery in West Point, New York, a site of tremendous meaning for both of them,” her family said.