Ruth Vail Pierson Churchill, born August 22, 1896, graduated from Smith College with the Class of 1919. Following graduation, Churchill (then Pierson) went to the city of Chateau-Thierry, France, to work for the Foreign Missions Board of the Methodist Church. She went in response to a letter of request from Rev. Albert Hall Marion and his wife Eva, dated July 15, 1919. Marion was a family friend and minister from Churchill's hometown of Madison, New Jersey. He had served in the YMCA during the war, returned to France following the armistice, and was appointed the Director of the Chateau-Thierry Methodist Memorial under the auspices of the Eglise Methodiste Episcopale de France's War Relief Committee. Churchill was assigned to assist in construction, supply, medical, and morale projects in Chateau-Thierry, including the village of Crezancy. Although the work was similar to the undertakings of the Smith College Relief Unit (working nearby on the Somme River), the group Churchill worked with was under the control of the Methodist Church, and not directly connected to Smith College or its war relief efforts.

Churchill left France in May 1920. In the years following she maintained contact with many of the friends she met there, and continued her commitment to public service. She remained active in Smith College alumnae activities: she served in various capacities for her class beginning in 1939 through the 1980s; she was corresponding secretary and then president of the Summit Smith Club from 1938-1943; and she was president of the Alumnae Association from 1947-1950. She also worked on the 25th reunion book for her class in 1944, and the college's 75th Anniversary Fund from 1946-1947. Church was also an active participant in community affairs in Morris County, New Jersey. She worked with the Defense Council of Madison, the War Price and Rationing Board, the Women's Republican Club, the League of Women Voters, the Red Cross, the Morris County Welfare Board, the Madison Public Library, the Madison and Chatham Township Historical Societies, the Community Church of Summit, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also wrote occasional columns for the Chatham Courier and the Madison Eagle.

Ruth Pierson Churchill died August 16, 1999, one week before her 103rd birthday. She left three children: Martha Churchill Drake (class of 1950), Emily Churchill Wood (class of 1946) and John Churchill.