By Traci Angel
Photograph by Katherine Bish
The public knows the 75-year-old as an enthusiastic Forest Park volunteer, eager to put a brochure in your hand and tell you about events at the Zoo, Art Museum, History Museum or Science Center.
The media know Fred Ruhrwien as the guy who sends homemade buttons and magnets promoting upcoming events in the St. Louis area. The buttons come wrapped in a paper towel and packaged in an envelope with a typed note reminding addressees that the contents are “designed for easy waste can disposal.”
He has created 40 kinds of buttons since starting the hobby three years ago, with this year’s efforts including buttons commemorating Groundhog Day,Blah Buster Month, National Hug Month and the NCAA wrestling and basketball championships. Ruhrwien recently sent buttons to Post-Dispatch sports columnists Bernie Miklasz and Bryan Burwell that read, “Big Mac, Say It Ain’t So,” in light of Jose Canseco’s claim that Mark McGwire used steroids. “It’s an addiction that affords me a lot of fun,” says Ruhrwien.
After 31 years with McDonnell-Douglas, he retired 10 years ago and started making buttons when his wife banished him to the basement of their House Springs home to smoke his cigars. “I needed something to do,” he says. “The button distributions have been fun, but not much of a success. I very seldom see anyone wearing them, although some do pop up on filing cabinets.”
Ruhrwien even managed to get a couple buttons into the hands of the president. Last year he was one of the volunteers chosen to meet George W. Bush at the airport before the Washington University debate. He handed Bush buttons supporting the Freedom Corps and commemorating 9-11. The president held on to the buttons only a second before an assistant snatched them away.
That’s OK. Ruhrwien is, if nothing else, modest about his hobby. “I just don’t want people to think that I think it is really great or something,” he says.
