Mary Ruwart
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Mary J. Ruwart (born 16 October 1949) is a libertarian speaker, writer, and activist, the author of the bestselling 1992 book Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle.
Born in Detroit, Ruwart holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry (B.S., 1970), and a graduate degree in biophysics (Ph.D., 1974) from Michigan State University. After a brief term as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at St. Louis University Medical School, Ruwart spent 19 years as a pharmaceutical research scientist for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, and has written extensively on the subjects of government regulation of the drug industry and on libertarian communication. She also held an adjunct faculty position at the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1992, Ruwart published her best-selling book Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle (ISBN 0-9632336-2-9); in 2003, the third edition was published, retitled Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression (ISBN 0-9632336-6-1). In the afterword of the third edition of Healing Our World, Ruwart describes the experience of her sister's death, an assisted suicide facilitated by Jack Kevorkian.
A member of the Libertarian Party, Ruwart campaigned unsuccessfully for the party's presidential nomination in 1984 and for the vice-presidential nomination in 1992. Ruwart was the Libertarian Party of Texas's nominee for U.S. Senate in 2000, where she faced incumbent Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison; Ruwart polled just over 1% of the popular vote, finishing fourth behind Green Party candidate Douglas Sandage. Ruwart's name has been floated as a potential Libertarian nominee for president in the 2008 election.
Ruwart has served on the Libertarian National Committee, and was a keynote speaker at the 2004 Libertarian National Convention. In 2002, libertarians launched an unsuccessful lobbying campaign to get Dr. Ruwart appointed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. Additionally, Ruwart has served on the boards of the International Society for Individual Liberty, the Fully Informed Jury Association, and the Michigan chapter of the Heartland Institute.
