Alicia Ruhl MacArthur

Published 1:26 pm Thursday, June 26, 2025

May 9, 1921 – Jun 22, 2025

Alicia Ruhl MacArthur, daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning Publisher and Editor of the Medford Mail Tribune, Robert Ruhl, died on June 22 at her home at Foulkeways in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania.  She was 104 years old.

Born on May 9, 1921, Alicia was raised in Medford, Oregon, the second daughter of  Robert and Mabel Ruhl. She was an adventurous child and a great reader.  Alicia graduated from Bennington College in Vermont in 1943 with a degree in Art with a concentration in Urban Planning and Architecture.  

During World War II, Alicia volunteered in the war effort.  After the war Alicia served as a feature writer for the Medford Mail Tribune and the New York Herald Tribune covering the peace talks from Europe.  While living in Paris  1946-47, Alicia struck out into the countryside on her bicycle to explore and find out what life was like for those out of the city.  If she couldn’t find any rooms to rent she would ask a farmer to let her sleep in his barn.  She traveled to Spain and Corsica in this fashion too, often sketching the scenery in her travel journal.  Returning to New York in 1947, she continued to work in journalism, mostly as an editor’s assistant and often sketched principal players in famous trials she was covering.

In 1953, Alicia traded her career in journalism for the role of wife and mother when she married John R. MacArthur of Bronxville, NY. They began their marriage living a rustic life in the Adirondacks, cooking on a wood stove, chopping lake-ice for water, and surviving without electricity during their first winter.  They continued to live in upstate New York, while John worked as an engineer on construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway.   

In 1960, John was hired by a firm in Ellensburg, Washington, and the family, now with five children, moved to the west coast. There they built their own house and farmed their small farm, spending holidays hiking and camping in the beautiful outdoors of Washington State.   Five years later, with six children all under the age of 12, the family moved to Pakistan, where John was employed to build dams on the Indus River and it’s tributaries.  

The family settled in Lahore where the children could attend the American school.  The family spent the weekends and vacations exploring different parts of the country.  In 1965 when war broke out between Pakistan and India, Alicia and her family were evacuated to Kabul, Afghanistan for 3 months. While there, they visited the carved Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, and other historic sites. 

Tragically, her husband was killed in a mountain climbing accident in 1966, leaving Alicia a widow with six young children. She moved back to Medford, Oregon, where she lived as a single parent with the invaluable help of their long-time nanny, Marion MacFarlane.   There she was able to assist with the care of her own aging mother and father, in addition to volunteering in her community and becoming favored driver for all of her six childrens’ clubs and activities.

Although burdened with many responsibilities, Alicia devoted much of her life to service and the care of others. She served on several not-for-profit Boards, enjoyed hiking and other outdoor pursuits, was a voracious reader and a steady bridge player, and actively tended her garden, while raising her children and caring for her aging mother until the latter’s death in 1987. 

The dedication to others continued when Alicia joined her elder sister, Roxana Simmons, at Foulkeways in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania in 2001. At that Life Plan Community, Alicia made many friends, and volunteered on the flower committee and movie committee and also delivered newspapers and mail to residents who had lost their mobility.  She continued to spend her summers in Oregon until she reached the age of 94, when she found the travel a bit too much. 

Although her six children were by now living in six different states, the family remained close and visited often. Alicia enjoyed the role of matriarch, delighting her grandchildren with an often surprising sense of humor. 

For a person who engaged in so many extraordinary adventures, Alicia remained soft-spoken and modest throughout her life. She was an enduring caregiver, always looking out for the welfare of others even in her centenary years.  She never lost her sense of adventure and shared the most infectious laugh and her brilliant smile with all who came near her.   “She still enjoyed a martini on her birthday until she turned 99,” say her children. “On her hundredth, we switched to champagne!”

There will be a Celebration of Life event later in the year.  In lieu of flowers please make donations to Southern Oregon Land Conservancy (www.landconserve.org) or International Rescue Committee (www.rescue.org ) in Alicia’s name. 

SOLC was founded in 1978 as Oregon’s first regional land trust to conserve and enhance the wild and working lands of the Rogue River region to sustain our human and natural communities through generations. The MacArthur family have been pivotal partners in advancing that mission with the permanent conservation of the Rogue River Preserve, once a cherished site of the family’s multigenerational riverside retreat.   The IRC works in more than 40 countries and in 28 U.S. cities to help people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.