Ruth McIntyre, nee Batty (1921 - 2020)
	
Ruth Batty was born in 1921 near Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and was raised on the family homestead during the dirty thirties depression with its dust storms and grasshoppers.((“Ruth McIntyre “Mother Mac”. //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 16 September 2020.)) All of the girls in the family attended Normal School for teacher training. Ruth took her schooling in 1941 and taught in a city school. After two years of teaching, she and sister Bertha signed up for the military. It was 1943 and after training and working as telephone operators, she only worked for two months before she was released. This was an early release because the country needed teachers. Bertha went to the University of Edmonton to become a geologist and Ruth went to the University of British Columbia to earn her BA.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.))
	
In 1946, Batty ran out of money in her third year and, seeing an ad for teachers in Whitehorse, Dawson City, and Mayo she applied for a position in Mayo. She had no money for a ticket and so was sent up COD. She arrived late to an airfield of people wanting to check out the new teacher. Three men then visited her as the "school board" but the questions were personal, so she figured out it was a practical joke. One of the men was Gordon McIntyre. The first winter was cold, 50 below, and the ‘cats’ [tracked vehicles] were left running all night and wood was delivered to all from the government lot. The school was out during the cold, so the students missed lessons. Ruth fitted into the community - playing badminton, visiting, attending dances, and playing cards. She became friends with the parents of her students. In her second year, she moved into a cabin where she chopped her own wood.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.)) 

In 1948, Ruth started teaching in the high school in the old mining recorders’ office, pulled to its new site by a ‘cat.’((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.)) This was the first time the nine upper-grade students could study separately. Ruth’s sister Margaret came that year and taught grades one to seven in the old building.((Marjorie E. Almstrom, //A Century of Schooling: Education in the Yukon 1861 – 1961.// Whitehorse, 1991: 221-23.))  Twelve students were now able to continue their studies in their own town. The new school council was called the Polar Bear Club. They held two dances that first year to raise money to build a skating rink but there was too much snow to use it. In the spring it was turned into a baseball diamond. A spring fair brought in enough money to buy a slide projector and screen and more sports equipment. The Polar Bear Club expanded to include intramural sports and trips to other schools.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.))
	
In 1949, Ruth decided to take a business course and get a job in Whitehorse but then used her $80 savings to change an abandoned restaurant into the Luncheon Bar in the Silver Inn Hotel. She opened on credit and business was brisk. She had five tables and a counter and a line up at the door. Her staff included Jean Boyle, Rose Wood, and Vi Lakness. Rose baked cakes, muffins, and tarts but after a week they hired a cook to keep up. Ruth's lease with the hotel required her to stay open until 1 am for the bar crowd. Ruth was there to close, and she opened again at five a.m. About 1952, Ruth opened a store in the Chateau Mayo where the Nagano Restaurant used to be. She called it Ruth's Dress and Novelty Shop and she sold just about everything. The former kitchen area became her home. Staff included Kathy Wuerr, Rose Wood, and Jean Boyle. Soon after, Ruth moved the restaurant over to the Chateau Mayo.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.))
	
In September 1953, a small school was started in Elsa and Batty agreed to teach for one year to establish the school. There were only nine students that year, but the presence of a school drew families to the community.((Marjorie E. Almstrom, //A Century of Schooling: Education in the Yukon 1861 – 1961.// Whitehorse, 1991: 221-23.)) She commuted most nights, but not often in the winter.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.))
	
Gordon and Ruth were married in 1955 and Ruth sold the restaurant. The boom was over anyway as the Mayo dam and Mayo Road were complete. Angus was born in the first year of marriage and Mary was adopted two years later. Norman was born four years after that. The store operated without her in the day and she did the books at night. The family left Mayo in 1965 when Gordon received a promotion within the Yukon Government that required a move to Whitehorse. Jean Boyle was left in charge of the store until Ruth sold it three years later.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.)) 

Ruth spent the next twenty years in the educational system. She started with the Yukon Technical and Trade School, helping upgrade adults. In 1969, she started teaching English at FH Collins Secondary. The next year she was promoted to vice-principal where she earned the name "Mother Mac". In 1974 she was burned out and took a job teaching math at GA Jeckell Junior Secondary and worked with special needs kids. Her method was to start a mobile store that required planning, measuring, keeping a record book, checking invoices, from suppliers, banking and counting out change. The mobile store was set up at noon and they sold pudding cups, chips and chocolate bars. They bought games and kits with the profit and this drew other kids into the classroom.  With the rest of the profits, Ruth started a breakfast program and pulled in a dedicated core of volunteers to help. Jack Burrows put in a lot of hours building the mobile store. Ruth also taught Home Economics and would bring the students home to make stew and biscuits. Ill, she took a year off but was soon back teaching adults wishing to attend university. This program became the Yukon Teacher Education Program and over the next seven years it expanded into Yukon College.((Darrell Hookey, "Pioneer of the Yukon: Ruth McIntyre." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No.6, November 1997.)) 

Ruth retired from the position of Coordinator of Academic Studies in 1986 before the new Yukon College Campus opened. She was always searching for ways to make education less institutional.((“Ruth McIntyre “Mother Mac”. //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 16 September 2020.))