Ruth Walker, member of the Monitor family
We regret to report that longtime Monitor staffer and contributor Ruth Walker passed away Sept. 4. Ruth joined the Monitor in Boston in 1978 as a recent Oberlin College grad.
She held many posts in Boston and abroad: New England bureau reporter, business reporter, editorial writer, and deputy editor. She was also a staff correspondent in Germany, Australia, and Canada. As befits someone who loves, respects, and is curious about language, Ruth began writing about words in her “Verbal Energy” column in 2004, when she was copy desk chief.
Here’s a list of Monitor copy editor Casey Fedde's favorite "Verbal Energy" columns:
How to be possessive about apostrophes
The wages of typos – in pounds and pence
Sit tight, drive safe, and watch for flat adverbs
Slipping into my cloak of transparency
The copy editor who came in from the cold
The colonization of our book titles
