Ruth Margaret Petersson Bancroft

1908 - 2017

Ruth Margaret Petersson Bancroft
September 2, 1908 - November 26, 2017
Resident of Walnut Creek, CA
Ruth was born in Brockton, Mass. to Torsten Petersson and Ruth Nelson Petersson. She came to Berkeley, California as an infant because her father got a teaching post at UC Berkeley as a classics professor. Ruth grew up in the intellectual milieu of her parents' university friends. Ruth mainly attended private schools in Berkeley and then UC Berkeley where she studied architecture. When the stock market crash eliminated any chances of employment for female architects she changed her major to home arts. She found work teaching high school in Merced. In 1939 Ruth married Philip Bancroft, Jr. and moved to his family's farm in Walnut Creek where they grew walnuts and pears. There they raised their three children, Peter, Nina and Kathy.
Ruth was a collector. In the 1950s she collected sea shells. Her collection was meticulously documented: the shell's Latin name, where and when it was collected. A few years ago the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco accepted a large part of her collection because it was so well documented and shows how the animals have changed location and size over the past 60 years.
Ruth's collecting then expanded into plants. Ruth always loved plants and was a gardener in her home growing up in Berkeley. She continued to have her own garden in Walnut Creek, growing fruits and vegetables as well as a rock garden, many roses and hundreds of varieties of iris. By the late 1960s, with property taxes increasing every year, the farm had to be sold. By this time Ruth had begun to amass a large collection of succulents most of which were in green houses or under shelter. The garden was being watered by moving around hoses with sprinklers on their ends. An orchard near the house had to have the trees removed because of disease, and Phil offered the land to her for a new garden that would have a sprinkler system and save her a lot of work. Ruth was an artist. The family has beautiful clay sculptures she made when she was younger. Her artist's eye, along with her architectural training, allowed her to design the beautiful beds in her garden. Her garden is more than a beautiful collection of as many rare and unusual succulents and cacti as she could acquire. It is a resource for xeriscape and plant hardiness information. Her garden was the inspiration for the formation of the Garden Conservancy to preserve exceptional gardens. It is this garden that has now become the world famous Ruth Bancroft Garden.
Ruth was predeceased by her husband Philip, her sister Doris Dillon, her brother Robert Torsten Petersson and her grandson Joseph Dickerson. She is survived by her children Peter Bancroft and wife Barbara, Nina Dickerson and husband John, and Kathy Hidalgo and husband Loreto and grandchildren Kris Hidalgo, Kim Hidalgo, Erika Hidalgo and Philip Dickerson and wife Truc.
The family wishes to express their gratitude to Aida Lucio and Marie Lucio for the outstanding and loving care they gave to our mother. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to The Ruth Bancroft Garden to help preserve Ruth's lasting legacy.


View the online memorial for Ruth Margaret Petersson Bancroft