Ritter, Mary Bennett, 1860-1949

American physician and community activist born in 1860 in Salinas, California. In 1883, Ritter studied medicine with Dr. Euthausia S. Meade of San Jose. She entered Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, in 1884 and graduated in 1886. She interned at Children's Hospital, Berkeley. Ritter took over the medical practice of Dr. Sarah I. Shuey of Berkeley in the late 1880's and continued her practice until 1909. She served as physician to women students at the University of California and was recognized as first dean of women. She married University of California zoologist William E. Ritter, June 23, 1891 and moved to La Jolla with her husband in 1909, and had an active career as a suffragist and social activist in La Jolla, California. She died in Mountain View, California in 1949.