Dr. Ruth Kauffman

Physician —

DR. RUTH KAUFFMAN BEGAN HER PREMEDICAL TRAINING in the shadow of World War II in a college in Logan, Utah. After losing her only brother to the war, she transferred to the University of Missouri – Columbia. She then attended medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated in 1948.

After medical school, she served her internship at St. Luke’s Hospital.  Kauffman was put in the nurses’ dormitory. “They had never had a woman intern,” Kauffman said. She said there were times when that made a difference. “I could tell I was always being tested,” she said.

Kauffman was offered a job in Versailles working with Dr. Aubrey Jackson Gunn at the Gunn Clinic. Since there were no specialists nearby, the doctors at the Gunn Clinic were often called upon to care for a variety of traumas. 

Kauffman spent time taking care of the elderly, and counseled women after childbirth when they were prone to depression. She volunteered at the Morgan County Mental Health Association in Versailles, served on the Morgan County Health Center Board of Directors, was president of the Versailles United Methodist Women and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Versailles Area Chamber of Commerce in 1999.

Dr. Ruth Kauffman died on October 2, 2006.