SAN CLEMENTEAN
Ruth DeNault An Independent Spirit
by Donia Moore S
ome people might say that intelligence is something you can’t “see”, but they haven’t met Ruth DeNault, President of
DeNault’s Hardware-Home Center. Ruth pos- itively radiates it, along with a keen sense of humor and an unbridled enthusiasm for life. This elegant, chic woman is as strong and sin- gle-minded as a person can be when it comes to her family, her business and her civic loves. Family, of course, comes first with Ruth.
All four of Ruth’s and Jim’s sons: Bob; Steve; Don; and Tom are an integral part of DeNault hardware business, each with their own Vice President responsibilities in different areas of management expertise. Many of her grandchil- dren also work in the stores. But Ruth, as Pres- ident, Secretary and Treasurer of the company, is the unflagging spirit of the business. The Na- tional Retail Hardware Association recently awarded her the Top Gun in Hardware prize.
It’s the first time a woman was so honored. Ruth is no stranger to the hardware store
business or to hard work. Her mother’s family established the general store and the hardware store next to it in the 1800s in southwestern North Dakota. As schoolgirls, Ruth and her sis- ter were needed to help out in the store with her family. The family has deep roots in North
Dakota. Her father’s parents homesteaded their land in 1899 when the west began to open up for expansion. Many Germans from the Ukraine settled there, and they were primarily farmers. Although they didn’t need much in the way of food since they grew their own, the General Store and the hardware store opened by Ruth’s family was a welcome addition to the town for supplies, tools and other items needed by the burgeoning agricultural population. Ruth’s grandfather built the family’s first
Ruth DeNault was recently named to San Clemente’s venerable “Wall of Recognition.”
home - a long low building made of stone, with one end reserved for the livestock, and the other end for the family’s living quarters - typ- ical of the building style in that area. They were very hard workers and it wasn’t long until they were able to buy the lumber to build the grace- ful two story first home Ruth remembers, with the original stone home becoming the barn. “There was a real spirit of independence at that time”, she recalls. When Ruth graduated from high school
Serving another term as President of the Casa Romantica Board of Directors, Ruth welcomes Berenika Schmitz to her new post as Executive Director .
with her class of 13 students, she received a scholarship and went away to college at the University of St. James in North Dakota. Jim was also attending college there as a business major, a couple years ahead of her. It was love
at first sight for Jim. He had to convince Ruth, though, and he wasn’t afraid to ask his friends for help. On one occasion, they were on their way to a football game, along with one of the drummers in the band. Jim convinced his friend to pack his drums in the back seat in such a way that it forced Ruth to sit closer to him! A few more of these moves soon con- vinced her that he was serious and she agreed to marry him. They returned home following Jim’s grad-
uation. His father was in the insurance indus- try. but Jim knew that he didn’t want to be in that business. He’d always liked the retail end of business where customers would come to the store instead of having to go out to find cus-
San Clemente Hardware in the ‘50s at the corner of Ola Vista and Avenida Del Mar. SAN CLEMENTE JOURNAL
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DeNault’s San Clemente Hardware moves to N. El Camino Real.
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