John Lofland in the blog Davis History Today  shares a booklet he found while visiting Ferndale written by Viola Russ McBride. I had never seen the book, titled University Farms verses CO-EDs,  or heard this particular tale. The story is about Viola turning the tables on a sexist instructor, and is available from the Ferndale Museum.

It strikes me that the acorn didn’t fall to far from the tree here. Growing up I heard of the historical reference to “Z Russ & Sons” and could never quite figure out what the Z was all about, but thought it sounded cool at any rate. Then I stumbled on an article that tell of when the Hon. Joseph Russ died, his wife Zipporah (Viola’s grandmother) continued his empire as Z. Russ & Sons”!

I suspect she chose to abbreviate her name to cope with the prejudices of her time.