Ruth Munce

Ruth H. Munce (January 24, 1898 – May 23, 2001) was an American romance novelist, mission teacher and founder of Keswick Christian School in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Ruth Glover Hill was the second daughter of Presbyterian minister, Thomas Franklin Hill, who died when she was two. As a widow, her mother, Grace Livingston Hill, author of over 100 Christian-themed romance novels, provided a comfortable lifestyle for Munce and her sibling in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Munce's mother was not the only writer in her family line. Her great-aunt, Isabella Alden, was also a well-known author, writing a series called "The Pansy Books" from the mid-to-late 19th century.

Around 1925, she married Gordon Munce, who was an oil executive for Gulf. In subsequent years, The Munces adopted two sons, James and Robert. Her husband, Gordon, died in the late-1940s. Her mother, Grace Livingston Hill, also died in 1947, in the midst of writing the novel, Mary Arden. Lippincott Publishers asked Munce to finish her mother's book, and she took on that challenge. Writing under the pen-name, Ruth Livingston Hill, Munce attempted to continue in her mother's style of writing. She says that J. B. Lippincott could not tell the difference between what content was hers and what was her mother's, and Munce refused to show him any of the written variations. Completion of her mother's novel lead to her own career as an author, writing six more Christian romances. She also wrote a book of Bible studies and a textbook on the book of Genesis, published in the mid-1980s.

Following her mother and husband's deaths, Munce moved to Tampa Bay with her two sons. She performed a three-month stint at St. Petersburg High School, teaching Bible history until the School Board decided to do away with this subject because it would open the way for more "subversive groups." At a crossroads in her career, Munce chose to finish her college education that she had begun at Wheaton College but was interrupted by World War I. She earned a teacher's certificate.

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