A childhood photograph captured Ruth Lovelace’s first rescue. She’s in a fire hat, on the ladder of her bunk bed, saving the family cat, Mittens, from some imaginary peril.
The picture was prophetic. In 1978, she became the first female firefighter in Brevard County, Florida. Later, she accepted a job at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center, earning another distinction: first female firefighter in the aerospace industry.
In 1999, she made her way to Mary Washington, where she has served in the role of director of Emergency Management for two decades.
