Ruthe B. Mandell Cowl was a businesswoman and philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 who in 1959 established the first physical therapy

Physical therapy

Physical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...

 and orthopedic

Orthopedics

Orthopedics is the study of the musculoskeletal system. The Greek word 'ortho' means straight or correct and 'pedics' comes from the Greek 'pais' meaning children. For many centuries, orthopedists have been involved in the treatment of crippled children...

 clinic in her adopted city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 of Laredo

Laredo, Texas

Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Her Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation

Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...

 Center is a private nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 that treats between 125 and 200 patients daily for physical, mental, or emotional problems. The center employs therapists, program managers, accountant

Accountant

An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...

s, cooks, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s, teacher aides, and counselors

School counselor

A school counselor is a counselor and an educator who works in elementary, middle, and high schools to provide academic, career, college access, and personal/social competencies to K-12 students...

, some of whom work in the child development center. Cowl was the longtime unpaid executive director of the facility, located at 1220 Malinche Avenue in "The Heights" section of Laredo. The facility was named for Cowl on December 16, 1969. At the time, U.S. Representative Abraham Kazen, Jr.

Abraham Kazen

Abraham Kazen, Jr., usually known as Chick Kazen was a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1967 to 1985.- Education :...

, of Laredo paid tribute to her generosity and commitment in the Congressional Record

Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...

.

Many of the standards which Cowl set for the center were incorporated in operational manuals by state and national agencies and became regulations mandated by the United States government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law in 1990 by U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush. Cowl pleaded with agencies, organizations, and individuals to contribute to the handicapped, the dependent, the neglected, and the socially and economically deprived in a community which was then known for high unemployment (a problem since ameliorated) and intense social needs. Ruthe Cowl founded the Laredo Rehabilitation Foundation after becoming aware of the lack of services for victims of the polio epidemic in the early 1950s as well as the lack of access for all people, both wealthy and poor, to basic physical therapy services. The Rehabilitation Center began as a small, two-staff operation (including Cowl herself) in two rooms borrowed from the Department of Public Health in a building on a dirt street. In time it became apparent that there was a general lack of comprehensive treatment for victims of other critical problems including victims of brain injuries, physical trauma, strokes, learning disabilities and the list just kept growing. In 1969, the center was renamed for its founder. Prior to the administration (1978–1990) of Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 Aldo Tatangelo

Aldo Tatangelo

Aldo J. Tatangelo, Sr. , was the reform mayor of Laredo, Texas, who served from 1978 to 1990. Tatangelo is often credited with having obtained the paving of the "streets of Laredo"...

, who died a week before Cowl, nearly three-fourths of Laredo streets were unpaved. The center now has 32565 square feet (3,025.4 m²) with a large parking lot, a staff of some seventy persons, and an operating budget of over $2 million annually. At least 125,000 sessions of treatment are provided annually to thousands of physically and emotionally handicapped persons in the region irrespective of their financial means.

Personal background

Cowl was born in Brooklyn, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, the youngest of eight children of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n parents. Her father died before she was two years of age, and her mother expired when Ruth was only twelve. When sixteen years old, she attended the Alliance Française for a year of high school while her sister attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. She obtained a bachelor of arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 in southern Manhattan and was certified to teach English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. However, she spent her sophomore and junior years in Columbia

Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...

, South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, where she supported herself as a student, working first as a research analyst in vocational placement and subsequently as a research assistant for a professor of geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 at the University of South Carolina

University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...

, where she was enrolled.

On New Years Eve, 1934, in Nyack, New York

Nyack, New York

Nyack is a village in the towns of Orangetown and Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of South Nyack; east of Central Nyack; south of Upper Nyack and west of the Hudson River, approximately 19 miles north of the Manhattan boundary, it is an inner suburb of New...

, she married Jack Cowl (October 17, 1909 - July 6, 2001). The Cowl family moved to Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 with their two sons and were looking to establish a new business in Texas. During a trip to Mexico during the Christmas school vacation in 1952, the family stopped in the Rio Grande border city of Laredo, the seat of Webb County

Webb County, Texas

Webb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The official 2010 population for the county is 250,304. In 2000, its population was 193,117, and in 2006 its population had been estimated to have reached to 231,470. Its county seat is Laredo...

 in south Texas to visit people whom they had met through mutual friends in Dallas. They were impressed with the unique culture and business opportunity that Laredo presented and purchased a music store there in March 1953. The store grew and sold records, televisions, and prestigious sound systems, having drawn customers from Mexico as well as South Texas

South Texas

South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of and including San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande River, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 3.7 million. The southern portion of this region is...

. In time, the Cowls devoted themselves to the establishment and expansion of the Cowl Center.

Cowl's death and legacy

Cowl died in Laredo at the age of ninety-six. Services were held on March 21, 2008, in Woodbury, New York

Woodbury, New York

Woodbury is the name of some places in the U.S. state of New York:*Woodbury, Nassau County, New York*Woodbury, Orange County, New York...

. She was interred next to her husband at Farmingdale

Farmingdale, New York

The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...

, a rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 community near New York City. Survivors included two sons, Anthony Cowl, a retired educator in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and John Cowl, M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

, of Pembroke

Pembroke, Massachusetts

Pembroke is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,927 at the 2000 census.The southwestern section of Pembroke is also known as Bryantville...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

; granddaughter, Dr. Allison Cowl Nicoletti of Petersham

Petersham, Massachusetts

Petersham is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,234 at the 2010 census. Petersham is home to a considerable amount of conservation land, including the Quabbin Reservation, Harvard Forest, the Swift River Reservation, and Federated Women's Club State...

, Massachusetts; and numerous nieces, nephews and grandnieces and nephews including grandniece, Judy Lockman; and grandnephew, Jonathon Lockman.

Mary Lamar Leyendecker of Laredo, a Cowl board member, told the Laredo Morning Times

Laredo Morning Times

The Laredo Morning Times is a daily newspaper publication based in Laredo, Texas, USA. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation.The Laredo Morning Times was founded on June 14, 1881 as "the Laredo Weekly," a four-page newspaper published by James Saunders Penn. Two years later, the paper became a...

that Cowl was "a true champion of the poor and people with physical disabilities. She was a true leader in the fight for human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 and fought for the rights of all people to live as dignified and independently as possible. She was an ageless and progressive thinker. . . . She was always forward-thinking and kept up with what was good for patients. We're going to miss her so much."

Lillian Dickinson, a retired manager at the rehabilitation center who traveled to New York for Cowl's funeral services, in an interview with the Laredo Morning Times, called her "a visionary for the community. . . . she and I were idealistic and wanted to improve the quality of life for so many people. There were times I would make home visits and come into the center discouraged because of the poverty, and she would say, ‘No, no, let's sit down and talk about it.' So we would strategize and come up with ideas for solving problems."

The Cowls were Jewish and shared a dedication to their religious heritage and culture. In 2001, Ruthe Cowl donated $1 million to the National Yiddish Book Center

National Yiddish Book Center

The National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, on the campus of Hampshire College. It is a cultural institution dedicated to the preservation of books in the Yiddish language. It is a member of Museums10 and is a non-profit institution, and its cultural programs are...

 in Amherst

Amherst, Massachusetts

Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...

, Massachusetts, to create the Jack and Ruthe B. Cowl Center. This particular center celebrates Yiddish culture and Jewish literary, artistic, musical, and historical knowledge and accomplishment. Early in 2007, Cowl donated $750,000 to the Yiddish Book Center to create the Cowl Jewish Leadership Program for promising college students.

Odie Arambula, a longtime Cowl Center board member and retired editor

Editor in chief

An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...

 of the Laredo Morning Times, recalled the difficult tasks of getting the center on its feet financially. Arambula said that Cowl once told him that she did not want him ever "to abandon or quit this board, and I never did." Jack Cowl did much of the fundraising for the center from the golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 course. Among large donors to the facility were the late philanthropists Guadalupe Martinez, a Laredo businessman and rancher, and his wife, Lilia Martinez.

At a memorial service for Cowl held on April 3, 2008, at the Laredo synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

, Congregation Agudas Achim, Arambula continued: "Very few people listen to the elderly, the poor, the impoverished, those in need and little children because they don't protest, they don't picket and they don't march. . . . We're entrusted to do it for them to help restore their lives physically and emotionally."

Joaquin Gonzalez Cigarroa, Jr., M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

, Cowl's friend and personal physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and a prominent Laredo civic leader, said that she introduced another "facet of medicine and therapy to a community that didn't have it. Her employees and patients loved her. She was persistent and plugged away and succeeded in getting funds to operate the center. . . . She was a remarkable woman and had very deep feelings toward people. The best quality she had was her love for human beings."

Until Cowl opened her center, physical therapy was essentially unavailable in Laredo. Lillian Dickinson said that "not many people are aware that physical therapy started here in Laredo with Mrs. Cowl. In 1959, she embarked upon a lifelong journey involving physical therapy." Dickinson also referred to Cowl as "a tough teacher [with] high standards." Webb County Judge Danny Valdez

Danny Valdez

Danny Valdez is the County Judge of Webb County in south Texas, United States. Valdez is the 22nd person to hold the elected office since Webb County was established in 1848. He served four years with the United States Navy and twenty-four years as a justice of the peace before becoming county...

 recalled his early years as a volunteer at the center and how Cowl was "passionate ... She would stop and talk with each patient individually."

In June 2008, the Cowl board of trustees tapped Julie Bazan, a Houston

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 native who has lived in Laredo since 1990, to succeed Cowl as executive director of the rehabilitation center. Bazan holds a bachelor's degree in social work

Social work

Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...

 from Texas A&M International University

Texas A&M International University

Texas A&M International University, often referred to as TAMIU, is a public, co-educational, state-supported university located in Laredo, Texas...

in Laredo.