By Mary Weaver, Executive Director
Joyce Ride hired me in 1988, after I had completed community service.
More than anyone else I ever knew, Joyce lived her values. During the Civil Rights era, she taught her fourth-grade Sunday school class to sing “We Shall Overcome.” She worked closely with female politicians as part of the National Women’s Political Caucus and sported a bracelet that was made and given to her by Gloria Steinem.
Joyce visited the Los Angeles County women’s jail for many years as a Friends Outside Volunteer Jail Visitor, then “graduated” to visiting incarcerated women at the California Institute for Women in Fontana every weekend for decades. She spent a considerable sum of her own money to gain the release of a woman, Gloria Killian, who had served 17 years. Joyce believed her to be innocent and worked tirelessly for Gloria’s successful release. Gloria lived with Joyce for years after that.
“I was born with an intolerance for injustice and there is no place you can find more injustice than at a women’s prison.”
While Joyce’s older daughter Sally was exploring space as the country’s first female astronaut and daughter “Bear” was entering the clergy, Joyce was President of the Friends Outside in Los Angeles County Board of Directors. She occasionally visited our small office in Pasadena, usually over the lunch hour. She would eat half her sandwich, carefully wrap the other half in plastic, and instruct us to “give it to a hungry person.”
I never had the privilege of knowing Joyce’s husband Dale, who taught at Santa Monica Community College and died in 1989. The family created the Dale Ride Internship Program in his honor. The program placed SMCC students in internships in Washington D.C., including the White House. Through Joyce, I gained some understanding of how their two daughters grew up to break stereotypes, fight for the underdog, and accomplish exceptional things.
I was grateful to Joyce for so many things. She always told me “Hiring you was the best decision I ever made.” I always found that hard to believe. It was during her memorial service, 38 years after we first met, that I came to realize that it was her way of letting me know that she believed in me long before I came to believe in myself.
This was Joyce’s favorite poem. It is succinct and powerful like her:
My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
Adrienne Rich
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.