By Susan McInnis

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Just before taking that job, Lister learned she had breast cancer. She said it broke her heart, but she took it on like she did everything else. She learned as much as she could, got the best doctors and support network she could find, and fought to win. She did win, against bad odds, for nearly 18 years. Before her death in 2002, she raised Cady and then delighted in two granddaughters. She worked, as she always had, as long as she could, committed to changing for the better whatever came into her hands.

When Lister took the helm at UAF's Tanana Valley Campus in 1991, she applied much of what she had learned in her previous professional and volunteer work to move TVC beyond college prep and continuing education courses.

She talked with Interior employers about the skills they needed in employees. TVC subsequently developed two-year programs in technical, vocational and career studies. She said in 1995, "We want businesses to know that the courses we provide benefit not just students. Employers gain trained staff and create a workforce with upgraded skills. The training we provide can save employers money in the short- and long-term." Students, she said, needed to be prepared for both life and work. "In addition to career and technical skills, students need math, communications and problem-solving skills if they want to be a part of a 21st-century workforce."

Today TVC graduates paralegals and paramedics, chefs, mechanics, IT specialists, bookkeepers, welders, health care workers and more. The success at TVC is the kind Lister liked best -- everybody gets something useful: students, faculty, employers, the community and the economy.

In the 1995 interview with Pete Pinney, Lister said that the times "and personal experiences, too, led me to want to try and make change. I felt fortunate to be educated and was pretty competent at doing things, so I had the opportunity … And I guess I have a very strong belief in trying to use the political process to make change." Asked about a mark of success, she answered simply, “There are resources for people."

Cady, who spent many hours as a child under boardroom tables looking at people's shoes while her mother built coalitions a few feet above her, said, "She told me from the get-go that people have a duty to give back to their communities. That there's a bigger picture and a greater good to think about."

Susan McInnis, '76, '99, is an instructor for UAF's Center for Distance Education.

UAF alumni featured in this story: Cady Lister, '99, '01; Pete Pinney, '88

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Read about Ruth Lister Memorial Scholarship

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