Growth, Grit and Gratitude: A Message from Dr. Ruth Davidon MacQuarrie ’82

On a bright June afternoon, Baldwin alumna Dr. Ruth Davidon MacQuarrie ’82 stood at the podium with the poise of an Olympian and the heart of a healer. Addressing the graduates with wit, warmth and the hard-won wisdom of a life lived in service, sport and science, Dr. MacQuarrie returned to Baldwin as an inspiration for the Class of 2025.

An accomplished physician, Olympic rower, humanitarian and lifelong learner, Dr. MacQuarrie exemplifies the mission of The Baldwin School: to develop women of confidence, resilience and intellectual curiosity. Her story, equal parts grit and grace, is one that has traversed the Schuylkill River, the Olympics, the operating room and some of the world’s most vulnerable corners. Recognized for her professional and athletic achievements, paired with her deep commitment to excellence and service, Dr. MacQuarrie received the Baldwin Distinguished Young Alumna Award in 1997 and was inducted into Baldwin’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

Dr. MacQuarrie’s journey began in a home steeped in activism and academia. Her father, William Davidon, was a professor of math and physics and a noted peace activist, and her mother, Ann Morrissett, taught English at Charles University in Prague. When she arrived at Baldwin, she was already drawn to intellectual rigor — but found something even more transformative in the school's atmosphere of female empowerment.

"I begged my parents to let me go to Baldwin because of the great academics and small class sizes," she recalled. "What I didn’t expect was the freedom I’d feel — not having to fight to be heard in class, not being dismissed and not being surrounded by the social pressure of dressing or acting a certain way."

She found joy in early mornings on the Schuylkill with the Baldwin rowing team, music blasting in the car and arriving at school energized and awake after practice. She also found an artistic mentor in art teacher Mrs. Fackenthal, who, Dr. MacQuarrie said, "taught me new ways to see things — and how to translate what I saw into a work of art.”

These early experiences at Baldwin instilled a confidence that would carry her into spaces often dominated by men — elite athletics and medicine among them.

Rowing was more than a sport — it was a proving ground. Dr. MacQuarrie represented Team USA in two Olympic Games, finishing sixth in the single sculls at Atlanta in 1996 and fourth in the double sculls in Sydney in 2000. She earned medals at the World Championships and Pan American Games, and in 1994 was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athlete of the Year in rowing.

The lessons from rowing, both at Baldwin and beyond, have stayed with her throughout her life.

“Resilience, adaptability, understanding that failure is part of improvement and learning to communicate clearly were all forged in the boat,” she said. “You also learn that progress often happens when you keep pulling, even when the water is choppy and your hands are blistered.”

Rowing, like life, taught her to keep going even when the path is unclear. “You move forward without being able to see exactly where you’re headed,” she said in her speech. “But if you keep pulling — you’ll find that rhythm. And it will carry you.”

Following her athletic career, Dr. MacQuarrie pursued medicine with equal determination. She earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins, where she was recognized for both academic excellence and leadership. Her medical path led her from the operating rooms of Lake Tahoe to the classrooms of UCSF, where she became a clinical assistant professor in anesthesiology.

But her drive to serve extended beyond the hospital. Inspired by Olympic speedskater Johann Olav Koss’s donation of his prize money to UNICEF, she helped found Olympic Aid Atlanta — a UNICEF initiative that delivered sports and medical supplies to children in war-torn regions. “What do kids want to do?” she asked. “They want to play. So providing sports equipment and instruction became an important part of our work.”

She has also been recognized with the American Heart Association's Heartsaver Award and the Good Samaritan Award for life-saving interventions outside the hospital, proving her commitment to making an impact wherever she goes.

Dr. MacQuarrie’s commencement address touched on growth, grit and gratitude. With humor and honesty, she spoke of the setbacks behind her successes — missed opportunities, physical injuries, personal losses and the mistakes that built her character. “In my own life, I’ve failed — a lot,” she confessed to the graduates. “Those failures? They were tuition. Not in the college sense — but in the life sense. Every time I got up, adjusted and tried again, I got closer to the person I wanted to become.”

She told the audience that it was grit and gratitude that carried her through both the darkest and brightest times of her life, and her advice to the Class of Green was both simple and profound: “You don’t have to be the best. Just keep being better. You don’t have to save the world. Just keep making it kinder. You don’t have to know the whole path. Just take the next step.”

Now living a quieter life filled with love, dogs and the occasional row, Dr. MacQuarrie remains, as ever, deeply curious. “I think I’ll always be working toward a peaceful, loving life, filled with fun, travel, and mental and physical activity,” she explains. She continues to be guided by her curiosity and a belief in the power of small, intentional actions. “Achievement doesn’t come in one great moment,” she said. “It comes from daily acts of attention and love — to yourself, to your community and to your dreams.”

From the banks of the Schuylkill to the Olympic stage, from the quiet focus of a medical residency to humanitarian outreach across borders, Dr. MacQuarrie has always moved with purpose. She reminded the graduates, and the entire Baldwin community, that greatness is not a singular destination but a continuous journey — one stroke, one act of kindness, one courageous step at a time.