Photo by Keith Lacey Ruth Schiller of Osoyoos will be receiving the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal next Monday in town council chambers. The longtime volunteer has been one of this town’s true community builders over the past 70 years. One of Schiller’s prize possessions is this photograph she had taken of herself with Queen Elizabeth II and former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife Arlene during the Queen’s visit to Canada back in 1996. Photo by Keith Lacey.
Ruth Schiller has met and had her picture taken with Queen Elizabeth and wined and dined with numerous Canadian Prime Ministers, but they pale in comparison to calling the Town of Osoyoos home for the past 73 years.
Schiller will be honoured with a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal on Monday, Sept. 10 in Town of Osoyoos council chambers. Schiller has dedicated a large part of her life to making her hometown a better place to live and says living in Osoyoos and raising her family here is one of her proudest achievements.
“I would be nothing without the Town of Osoyoos,” said Schiller, who emigrated to Canada from Germany as a teenager and has called Osoyoos home for the past 73 years. “My first reaction when I was told I would be receiving the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal was this is going to look good for the Town of Osoyoos. I’m so lucky to have landed here when I was a child and I am so proud to call Osoyoos home for the past 73 years.
“I’ve travelled all over the world and met a lot of wonderful people, but the best people I’ve ever met are my friends here in Osoyoos.”
Schiller is being honoured by spending her lifetime in public service to her community, her province and her country.
As her good friend Alison Smith wrote in nominating her for the prestigious medal, “even as a young woman, Ruth wanted to make a difference in the community her children would grow up in.”
Schiller’s accomplishments are almost too long to list, but some of the highlights include being involved in the Oliver-Osoyoos Hospital Auxiliary and helping found the Osoyoos Parent Teachers Association, which helped introduce French-language education to primary school students and helped open the school’s first cafeteria.
She was chair of the Osoyoos Cherry Fiesta Festival for years and was a founder and past president of the Osoyoos Arts Council. She was a longtime president of the Osoyoos Liberal Association and has attended every federal Liberal convention since the late 1960s.
She considers former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife Arlene as close friends and was a key member of the Liberal party that selected Pierre Elliott Trudeau to become the Prime Minister of Canada more than 40 years ago.
Schiller is perhaps best-known for her tireless efforts in promoting the arts as a longstanding member of the B.C. Arts Council and then for six years as a member on the Canada Council on the Arts.
She was also instrumental in the creation of the Osoyoos Desert Society, which has helped preserve the unique habitat in Canada’s only desert.
“Ruth is a role model for women of all generations,” said Smith. “At a time when women faced real obstacles in the working world, Ruth made a career out of public service. She is hard working, optimistic, generous, practical and eager to learn. She likes nothing better than a lively political debate and encouraging all around her to engage and become involved. She is a woman with a real knowledge of history who is always open to the world of new ideas.
“A Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award would be fitting recognition of her lifetime of public service and I know she would be deeply honoured.”
When she wasn’t involved in making her community a better place to live, Schiller helped her husband Fred, who passed away in 1989, operate their large fruit orchard business while raising her two daughters.
Schiller, who was honoured with the Order of B.C. back in 1996, has also received the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and Gold Jubilee medals for her tireless community work.
As a card-carrying and proud Liberal since age 25, Schiller said being able to meet every Liberal Prime Minister since Lester B. Pearson in 1968 is something she’s also very proud of.
“I’ve been proud to call myself a dedicated member of the Liberal Party of Canada since I was a young lady,” she said. “I was a huge supporter of Jean Chretien and was co-chair of the federal campaign to have Chretien re-elected. We managed to get six Liberal seats here in B.C., which helped him form a majority government.”
Meeting Queen Elizabeth back in 1996 in Toronto was also a highlight and provides the background to a wonderful story she has amused friends with for years, said Schiller.
There were 800 Liberals at a big function in a huge hotel banquet room in Toronto and she desperately wanted to say hello to the Queen and have her picture taken with her, said Schiller.
After the public function, Schiller was wandering the halls and came across a police officer who told her about a private function for 40 people in a room down the hall. Schiller casually walked in and realized the room was full of Liberal Senators and MPs as well as Chretien, his wife and Queen Elizabeth.
Chretien recognized her and introduced her to the Queen, which almost led to one of Schiller’s most embarrassing moments.
“Being a friendly western woman, I was going to put my arm around her shoulder and hug her,” said Schiller laughing. “I had no clue you couldn’t touch the Queen. As I was about to wrap my arms around her and give her a hug, I felt Mr. Chretien grab my arm and stare at me. My kids still joke that Jean Chretien saved my political career at that moment. It was actually really funny.”
A royal photographer eventually took a picture of Schiller with the Queen and the Chretiens, which she proudly displays on the wall of her Osoyoos home.
At age 87, Schiller said she looks back on her life and considers herself very lucky to be from Osoyoos.
“I was a little girl from Germany who didn’t speak a word of English when I got here … I’ve had a wonderful life since coming to Canada,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a better life.”
