Claudia Ruggerini
Claudia Ruggerini (also known as Marisa) was an Italian partisan, activist, doctor, and neuropsychiatrist. She was born on February 1, 1922, in Milan and died on July 4, 2016, in Rome. Her father was active in the Communist Party and was killed by fascists in 1934 when Claudia was twelve.
A bright and curious student, she loved learning and the arts. She first earned a diploma in classical studies, then began studying medicine in 1942. While at university, she met anti-fascist students and later joined the resistance.
In 1943, Claudia joined the anti-fascist effort as part of the 107th Garibaldi Brigade for the CLN inside San Vittore Prison, where her sweetheart Hans was held. She was the only woman on her initiative committee. She helped by distributing underground newspapers, passing messages by bicycle, delivering weapons to partisans, and gathering intelligence. After Mussolini’s fall in 1945, she and fellow journalists helped liberate Il Corriere della Sera.
She later pursued medical training, focusing on psychoanalytic treatment in childhood and neuropsychiatry. Her thesis, The Technique of Psychoanalytic Treatment in Childhood, was completed in 1949. She met Professor Bruno Noll, who became her husband.
Ruggerini studied at the University of Pavia and finished her neuropsychiatry specialization in 1952. She worked as a neurologist in Milan for 33 years, rising to Chief Neurologist at Passirana Rho hospital. She believed that children with mental or neurological disorders could be educated in regular schools, not in special schools.
Retiring in 1987, she was named Emeritus Chief of Neurology and continued to volunteer for ten more years. In 1988, she and Anna Mancini founded the Treviso Advar Foundation to provide at-home care for terminal cancer patients. Claudia Ruggerini died of natural causes in Rome on July 4, 2016.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:26 (CET).