Longtime Ocean Beach resident Ruth Vallin will be celebrating her 100th birthday on Wednesday, Aug. 15. Born in San Diego, Vallin has lived in Ocean Beach since she was in the first grade and said she remembers when the neighborhood was more of a summer vacation spot than a full-grown community.
That was a time when not many people lived on the hills, she said.
After graduating from high school, Vallin worked as a secretary for California Packing Corporation (now Del Monte). She was quickly promoted to payroll clerk and then bookkeeper. Ruth climbed the corporate ladder in the mid to late 1920s, a time when such a thing was unusual for a young woman, said son Richard Vallin.
In 1934, Ruth married her husband, Halbert Vallin, whose father, Richard Godfrey Vallin, managed the San Diego Baseball Team in 1909. Vallin said her late husband owned a construction cost estimating company for 18 years and worked on many of the buildings in San Diego, including Qualcomm Stadium, said Richard Vallin, who has been in the same industry since 1973.
While turning 100 is a major accomplishment, Vallin said she shies away from the spotlight when it comes to celebrating. Some people celebrate turning 40 or 50, but they should just celebrate life for any reason, Vallin said.
“[People] are making a big fuss over it for me,” Vallin said. “Sometimes that’s too much. I like to go to places but I don’t like to be the center of attention.”
Despite her modesty, Vallin has actively participated in the Ocean Beach community, except for the first few years of her marriage when she and her husband moved to accommodate his work.
Vallin has one son, nine grandchildren and many more nieces, nephews, great grand nieces and nephews.