Nation’s Oldest National Park Ranger Dies at 104, Family Confirms

Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest known ranger in the history of the National Park Service, has died at the age of 104, according to her family.

Her family said Soskin passed away peacefully on Sunday morning at her home in Richmond, California. She was surrounded by family members at the time of her death.

“This morning on the Winter Solstice, our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Betty Reid Soskin, passed away peacefully at her home in Richmond, CA, at 104 years old,” the family wrote in a statement. “She was attended by family. She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave.”

Betty Reid Soskin held a singular place in American history, both for her longevity and for the stories she worked to preserve. When she retired in 2022, she was recognized as the nation’s oldest active park ranger.

Soskin became a permanent employee of the National Park Service in 2011, though her work with the agency began years earlier. At age 84, she accepted a temporary position connected to a Park Service grant focused on highlighting the overlooked experiences of Black Americans who supported the United States during World War II.

That work eventually led her to the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park, where she served as a longtime docent. Visitors regularly credited Soskin with adding depth and context to the site by sharing personal history and a first-hand perspective that rarely appeared in official accounts.

Born in Detroit in 1921, Soskin was the great-granddaughter of a formerly enslaved person from Louisiana, according to a documentary produced in association with the Rosie the Riveter Trust. Her Cajun-Creole family moved to California when she was a child, and she grew up in Richmond.

During World War II, Soskin worked as a file clerk in a segregated shipyard union hall, supporting wartime production efforts. She later described that role as a meaningful step forward at a time when opportunities for Black Americans were limited. In her words, it was comparable to being the first person in a family to attend college.

Soskin often spoke about growing up in what she called the “service workers generation,” a time when many Black families relied on jobs such as domestic work, porters, and manual labor. Those experiences shaped her understanding of American history and fueled her commitment to telling stories that had long been left out of public memory.

Her family did not disclose a cause of death.