Reprinted with Permission - Albuquerque Journal
Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Woman's Dad 'Father of Frozen Food'
By Paul Logan
Journal Staff Writer
Ruth Birdseye was an award-winning volunteer for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
And in her younger years, Birdseye worked at the laboratory of her famous dad, Clarence Birdseye, the "Father of Frozen Food."
Birdseye, an Albuquerque resident for nearly half a century, died Oct. 8 at Vista Care Hospice of complications from several ailments. She was 85.
Birdseye, 5-foot-2 and about 85 pounds, was known for her big heart, said Tom Rutherford, Bernalillo County Commissioner and a longtime balloon enthusiast.
Birdseye helped the fiesta during the 1970s and '80s in many ways, including serving on the hospitality staff, he said.
"They felt so strongly about her contributions and really didn't have anything to express that," Rutherford said of the fiesta committee. "So they created an award just for her."
Birdseye received the first Spirit of Albuquerque Award for her years of service.
Birdseye was frail but full of vitality, said Gypsy Birdseye of Lawrenceville, N.J. She was married to Birdseye's oldest brother, Kellogg.
Before Ruth Birdseye was born in upstate New York, the family lived for a time in Newfoundland, Canada. Her father was working for the U.S. government as a naturalist.
Ruth's father noticed that freshly caught fish, which were left on the ice, almost froze immediately in the 30-below-zero weather, Gypsy Birdseye said.
"Because they were frozen so quickly, there was no damage done to the cell structure," she said. They also tasted better than slowly frozen fish.
She said her husband, who was a boy at the time, recalled how his father would bring home fish that were quick frozen and put them in the family's tub. The fish would thaw out and start swimming.
"It was the thing that triggered in his brain and made him experiment in frozen foods," she said.
A few years after Ruth was born, her father founded Birdseye Seafoods Inc. He later sold the company and his patents on the flash-freezing technology in 1928 for $22 million. Birdseye stayed on as a consultant and Birds Eye Foods, which carries his name, was born in 1930, she said.
As the second-oldest of four children, Ruth worked with her father in his laboratory at the family's estate in Gloucester, Mass. She typed speeches for his lectures worldwide and manuscripts for hundreds of his inventions, said Gypsy Birdseye.
His inventions include the infrared heat lamp. The family surname became a household name, and his process became a multi-billion-dollar industry.
"Of course (the children) were all very proud of him," Gypsy said.
After he died in 1956, Ruth moved with her mother, Eleanor, to Albuquerque to live near another brother, Henry, a geologist.
Ruth, who had a security clearance from her government work in Washington, D.C., during World War II, took a job with Sandia National Laboratories.
She was known for taking care of her neighbors, such as driving the elderly to doctor appointments, Gypsy said.
"Ruth was busy, busy, busy taking care of everybody else," her sister-in-law said. "That's just the way she was."
She said her sister-in-law was married for a short time.
"She was always really cheerful and thoughtful and always anxious to make people comfortable and to make people feel important," Rutherford said.
A memorial service was held Oct. 20 at French Mortuary.
Survivors include a sister, Eleanor Talbot of Atherton, Calif., and a sister-in-law, Ernestine Phinney of Albuquerque.

Copyright 2003 Albuquerque Journal