Ruth Handler Ruth Handler Ruth Marianna Handler (née Mosko; November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002) was an American businesswoman and inventor. She served as the president of the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., and is best remembered for inventing the Barbie doll, although the doll's design was created by missile engineer-turned-toy designer Jack Ryan. Handler was born as Ruth Marianna Mosko in Denver, Colorado, to Polish Jewish immigrants Ida Mosko (née Rubenstein) and Jacob Mosko. She married her high school boyfriend, Elliot Handler, and moved to Los Angeles in 1938. Her husband decided to make their furniture out of two newfound types
Elliot Philipp Elliot Philipp Elliot Philipp (July 20, 1915 – September 27, 2010) was a British gynaecologist and obstetrician who worked with Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards in developing in-vitro fertilisation and authored "The Technique of Sex" (1939) with the assistance of Sigmund Freud. Phillip was born to a Jewish family in Stoke Newington, the son of Clarisse (née Weil) and Oscar Philipp. His father - who was a cousin to Martha Bernays, the wife of Sigmund Freud - immigrated in 1908 to London from Hamburg to set up the metal trading firm Philipp Brothers. In 1939, he married Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch;