The late twentieth century saw sex therapy and public education about human sexuality move gradually from the margins into mainstream conversation, carried in part by voices willing to speak plainly on radio and television. Ruth Westheimer — born Karola Ruth Westheimer on June 4, 1928, in Wiesenfeld, Germany — was one of those voices, and she brought to that work a range of credentials and life experiences that set her apart from most of her contemporaries.

Westheimer worked across an unusually wide span of roles: sex therapist, sex educator, sociologist, writer, radio personality, television presenter, stage actor, voice actor, television actor, university teacher, and, notably, trained sniper. She studied at the University of Paris, Columbia University, and Weill Cornell Medicine, and she worked in English, German, Hebrew, and French. Better known publicly as Dr. Ruth, she built a presence across broadcast media that brought frank discussion of sexuality to large general audiences at a time when that was far from routine.

The recognition she received across her lifetime reflected both professional standing and civic honor. She was named a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and received the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the Women in Technology Hall of Fame award. She held citizenship in both Germany and the United States. Westheimer died on July 12, 2024, in Manhattan, leaving behind a record anchored by those honors and by decades of work that spanned therapy, teaching, and broadcasting.