Ruth Zagat Murphy Casselman; Led Immigrant Groups

Ruth Zagat Murphy Casselman, 91, who for five decades led programs to consolidate and simplify the immigration and naturalization process in this country. Born in New York, in 1930 Mrs. Casselman founded the National Council on Naturalization and Citizenship and in 1954 the American Immigration Conference. The two organizations merged in 1966 and out of that merger came the National Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Forum, of which she was honorary chairman at her death. While heading these organizations from 1930 to 1973, she coordinated the activities of 80 social welfare, religious, labor and ethnic organizations, seeking changes in immigration laws and procedures. From her efforts came such legislation as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the 1965 Immigration Act, which abolished national origins quota systems for the Eastern Hemisphere. In Los Angeles on April 1.