Raised by her grandmother in Cripple Creek, Ruth Cave moved to Boulder to attend high school. Because she was black, however, Boulder High refused to give her a diploma. Later, at CU, she faced even more discrimination. Unable to find employment in Boulder after university, she headed for South Carolina to teach college-level French and Latin. She later returned to CU to earn a Masters in French and Education, and then moved to Washington DC to study law. There she met and married Harold Flowers, with whom she had a son. The marriage lasted four years. Despite the upheavals, Ruth continued her studies, earning a PhD in Foreign Languages at Washington’s Catholic University before returning to Boulder in 1959 to head the Department of Foreign Languages at Fairview High School. She became the first African American to teach in the Boulder Valley School District. Fifty years after her graduation, Boulder High finally saw fit to grant her the diploma.
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