[1] Her father was a school teacher, and her mother[2] expressed socialist ideals and encouraged liberal thinking and discussion in the home.

[1] Her husband Linus Pauling explained, "Ava Helen had been interested in social, political and economic problems ever since she was a teenager.

[3]" At the age of thirteen, two years after the divorce of her parents, Ava Helen moved to Salem, Oregon, to live with her sister.

[4][5][6] In the early years of her marriage, Ava Helen Pauling worked as a part-time laboratory assistant at the California Institute of Technology for her husband by taking notes, making models and completing other small tasks.

Ava Helen Pauling vigorously opposed this decision by joining the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and working to raise awareness about the government action.

When asked by the ACLU, she and her husband provided employment for a Japanese-American man recently released from an American internment camp.

In 1940, thanks in part to Ava Helen's suggestion, Linus Pauling gave his first political speech, urging his audience to consider Union Now as a movement toward a viable system of government.

[18] In addition to her membership in various women's organizations, Ava Helen served as three time national vice-president for WILPF, one of the many women-led groups that supported the Paulings' peace efforts.

[21] Ava Helen Pauling traveled throughout the United States and Europe giving speeches emphasizing the importance of peace.

After collecting over 9,000 signatures from scientists worldwide, in 1958 the Paulings presented the United Nations with a petition demanding an end to atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

"[30] Ava Helen Pauling died on December 7, 1981, at age 77, after a long battle with stomach cancer and subsequent internal hemorrhaging.