Ruth Mitchell Wunderly was born on May 15, 1896 and graduated from Arlington High School in 1915. She studied home economics from Fall 1915 to Spring 1918 at Simmons College, where her tiny size earned her the nickname "Mousie." Wunderly was treasurer of her freshman class, treasurer of the Simmons Athletic Association, and a member of the Endowment Fund Committee.(1) She served on the committee for class rings and chaired a committee that charged students five cents for absences from Class of 1919 meetings.(2) Wunderly did not return to Simmons for her senior year but instead married Albert Whittier Wunderlich (University of Maine, Class of 1918) on September 15, 1918.(3) Though Wunderly left Simmons, her mother, Carrie M. Mitchell, was Simmons’ Matron of Affiliated Houses in 1918-19 and Matron of College Houses in Brookline in 1919-20.(4)

In 1918, when Albert Wunderly served in the Air Force, Ruth Wunderly was a bacteriologist at the base hospital at Camp Travis in Texas, and in 1919, she began working as the scientific secretary at Yale University’s Department of Physiology.(5) While at Yale, Wunderly co-authored a report for the U.S. Department of Mines on tunnel gas, which informed the construction of the Holland Tunnel in New York City.(6) In June 1920, the Simmons Faculty voted to allow Wunderly to complete her studies at Yale.(7) By May 1921, the couple had returned from New Haven to open his gas station and her tea house, Ye Motor Tavernette, side-by-side on what is now Alewife Brook Parkway on the Arlington/North Cambridge line.(8)

In June 1924, the Simmons Administrative Board voted to grant Wunderly a Bachelor of Science degree and called her thesis "an exceptionally fine piece of work."(9) Although Wunderly officially graduated in 1924, she always associated herself with the Class of 1919.

By 1929, the Wunderlichs had changed their name to Wunderly. They had four children: Charlotte in 1922, Virginia in 1925, Caroline in 1930, and John in the 1930s.(10) Charlotte, later Mrs. Phillip Sweetser, would attend Simmons as a nursing undergraduate. She attended Simmons for four years, but it is unclear whether she graduated with her class, the Class of 1944, or at all.(11) Ruth Wunderly remained involved with Simmons through the Simmons Alumnae Association, serving as president from 1931-1933.(12) In the fall of 1941, she enrolled in two graduate courses in home economics at Simmons, but she later withdrew from the courses to accept a job.(13) She was vice-president of the Class of 1919 Executive Board in 1939, president in 1944, and co-chair of the Class of 1919 reunion in 1959.(14)

By 1949, the Wunderlys had moved from Arlington to Concord, where Ruth Wunderly was a title examiner and explored her interests in beekeeping, sewing, and antiques. They later moved to Acton, where her hobbies expanded to include spinning, stenciling, and rug braiding, and where she served as president of the Acton Historical Society. Ruth Wunderly died in May 1979.(15)