Spring R. Friedlander, Cornelio Terraza and Bridget Basham after a day of planting vegetables
This remembrance of Spring R. Friedlander's life is a collage of quotes and details from their own written account. The full account (www.forevermissed.com/spring-friedlander#about) includes their living arrangements, family history, personal relationships with women and men, health issues, activism in the womens and queer movements and included thoughts about how they lived their values. The following gem self describes Spring R.'s essence.
"My core values:
My being pivotal
Eco village
Hands on work
Living collectively
As a planner/ contractor
The author's have reduced the writings willfully left, into this remembrance of numerous unique and professional accomplishments including highlights of Spring R.'s participation in the Organization of Women Architects and Design Professionals.
Spring R. was born July 24, 1943 and raised in Chicago. They attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison 1961-65 earning a Bachelor of Science. After college, Spring R. was employed as a planner in White Plains, Westchester County, New York. Shortly after, they obtained a Master's in Urban Planning from Hunter College CUNY 1969, and at some point, migrated to the West Coast where Spring R. became a coordinator of Bay Area Women Planners, 1972.
"I entered the women's movement in 1969" wrote Friedlander.
Wendy Bertrand remembers, "In 1972, during my last year as a graduate architecture student at UC Berkeley, then Ruth Friedlander, led a consciousness raising talk in a living room with standing room only that I [Wendy B] attended and was motivated to learn more about the women's movement and the possibility of starting an organization of like-minded women in architecture, their response to a question I asked, became one of the influences that led to the founding of the Organization of Women Architects in 1973."
"I changed my name from Ruth Friedlander to Spring Ruth Friedlander in 1976."
"In Oct of 1980, I decided to become a tradeswoman. I'd been looking for another career for four years and realized in a flash of light, that i had been drawn to the trades for my whole life, had enough experience doing the work to know that I was decent at doing it, I would not have to sit at a desk, which was hard for me to do, I could get paid for using some of my excess physical energy, it was well paid, and by age 37 I was confident enough to handle the discrimination expected as a woman in a man's field.
I joined the Skilled Workers Resource Network, a support group for us who were beginning [as] self-employed construction workers [where] I got to be the token woman. So I felt welcomed which felt wonderful. I in turn welcomed women who joined later.
...by age 37 I was confident enough to handle the discrimination expected as a woman in a man's field.
I obtained a certificate in carpentry/ residential construction from Peralta Community Colleges in the San Francisco East Bay 1982. From 1989 - 1991, I taught carpentry [part] time and functioned as the administrator for the Carpentry program at Laney College, and taught a class of women being trained to enter construction. The students completely remodeled a gutted duplex that was sold to finance the program. The students were well instructed by me, as confirmed by their next teacher, Cynthia Correia, who was hired as the first tenured tradesperson.
In 2003, I was certified as a Green Remodeler, active in the Green Remodelers Guild. It evolved into Build it Green, stopwaste.org and [I joined] the Organization of Women Architects [and Design Professionals]. In 2008, I was certified in Green Building Professional Training. In October 2009, I was certified as an EPA Lead Certified Renovator.
In 2014, I retired as a contractor, carpenter, and house remodeler, after 34 years."
Bertrand recalls that Spring R. regularly attended the September OWA+DP Retreat and mentioned being pleased with the intellectual conversations that were different from those in other groups. Also Spring R. lobbied for and proudly hosted a well attended OWA+DP holiday party in their Oakland co-op house.
Architect Jean Nilsson nominated Spring R. Friedlander to the OWA+DP Steering Committee as a needed long-time member in 2016. "Spring is a former city planner who is now working currently as a contractor. She is interested in living collectively in co-housing and is active in the LGBT community. She is interested in joining the steering committee because she not only has deep knowledge of the organization, but also has insight to future programs."
~ OWA+DP Steering Committee minutes of October 25, 2016.