Obituaries : Philanthropist, Granddaughter of Times Founder : Ruth Chandler von Platen Dies at 90

Ruth Chandler von Platen, a quiet philanthropist who donated significantly to medical and educational institutions in California and Arizona, died Thursday at age 90.

The last surviving child of Harry Chandler, second publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Mrs. von Platen died in Huntington Hospital in Pasadena a few days after suffering a heart attack.

A sister of the late Norman Chandler, who became The Times’ third publisher, she spent most of her 90 years redistributing to others the benefits she accrued during her lifetime and from three marriages that each ended in her husband’s death.

Married at 85

Late in life, at age 85, she married a fourth time--to Karl Godfrey von Platen, a retired California lumberman and friend of 50 years. They lived in her English-style San Marino home.

Her first three husbands were Frederick Warren Williamson, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and the father of her four children; James Griffin Boswell, founder of J. G. Boswell Co., one of the largest agricultural firms in the United States, and Sir William Charles Crocker, a British baronet.

Mrs. von Platen married Williamson in 1924. He died in 1942 of a heart attack. His sister, Alberta, had married Philip Chandler, Norman Chandler’s brother.

In 1945 Mrs. von Platen married Boswell, a retired Army colonel and self-described “boy from a Georgia cotton patch” who from scratch started a farming empire that today is the leading producer of cotton in the nation.

After Boswell’s death in 1952, she served for many years as the Boswell firm’s board chairman, overseeing the tens of thousands of acres the company controls in California, Arizona and Australia.

Philanthropy Begun

It was during her first marriage that she began to look outside her immediate family to the philanthropic activities that marked her later years. But her second husband, Boswell, discouraged her charities, calling them “goose feathers and chicken feathers.”

After his death she resumed those works, although she continuously between 1938-1965 was a trustee of Polytechnic School (where her children and nine of her 11 grandchildren studied). She was instrumental in contributing the James G. Boswell Library to that Pasadena campus, as well as giving a major gift for the Willis Stork Administration Building on the lower school campus. The home she shared with Williamson is now used as administrative offices and classrooms on the upper school campus.

She became a major contributor to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and to medical facilities in Litchfield, Ariz., a small resort town near some of the Boswell holdings.

Born in 1897

She was born Ruth Chandler on Oct. 15, 1897, to Harry Chandler and his second wife, Marian Otis Chandler, daughter of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, founder of The Times. (Harry Chandler’s first wife died giving birth to May Goodan Chandler, Mrs. Von Platen’s half-sister who died in 1984. Her other brother, Harrison Chandler, died in 1985. Other sisters, Constance Chandler Crowe and Helen Chandler Garland, preceded her in death, as did another half-sister, Frances Chandler Kirkpatrick.)

Mrs. von Platen attended Stanford University for two years before taking graduate courses at Wellesley College. Stanford was to become another recipient of her generosity when she contributed significantly to the clinic there.

Among her other favorite activities was the Junior League of Pasadena. She was among a group of women there who founded a visiting nursing association for home care. She was also a former president of the Pasadena Garden Club and the Town Club, a private women’s luncheon club in Pasadena.

Her community efforts did not slacken after her marriage in 1956 to Sir William, baronet of Seal Chart, Seven Oaks, Kent, England.

(Sir William was an attorney for Lloyds of London and a British army officer in both world wars. During World War II he was assigned to Egypt to investigate the disappearance of diamonds destined for the United States.)

Back to California

After their marriage she divided her time between her San Marino residence and his home in England, but upon his death in 1973 she returned full time to her California home, with its Chippendale furnishings and flowers and gardens.

There she donated the use of her tennis court for benefits and her home for parties to help the Pasadena Girls Club and the Hollywood Bowl. She also donated the funds and an endowment for development of the Huntington Library’s new Shakespeare Garden, an 18th-Century meadow garden in San Marino dedicated in her honor in 1985.

She remained family oriented until her death, presiding at Sunday night dinners and vacationing with her children and grandchildren at a summer home in Carpinteria.

She is survived by her husband, three of her four children, Warren Brooks Williamson of Pasadena; Susan Williamson Dulin of Bayfield, Colo., and Norman Bruce Williamson of San Marino; 11 grandchildren and one great-grandson.

At her request, no funeral services are planned.