The Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation, Inc. was incorporated as a Wisconsin non-stock, non-profit corporation on December 23, 1957.
John attended Cornell University. He met Ruth St. John and they were married in Ithaca, New York in 1932. They moved to Manitowoc, Wisconsin and purchased property along the shores of Lake Michigan to build their home.
It was largely Ruth’s personal efforts that converted six acres of quack grass and thistle into the beautiful flower gardens known as the “West of the Lake Gardens”.