In Memory of Ruth Johnson Colvin

ProLiteracy Co-Founder • Relentless Advocate for Human Dignity • Warrior for Literacy Rights

Last year, we lost a giant. Our co-founder, Ruth Johnson Colvin, a fearless trailblazer for adult literacy, passed away at the age of 107. And though she’s no longer with us in body, her spirit burns on in every classroom, every tutoring session, and every person who refuses to let someone be left behind. 

Ruth didn’t just build a literacy movement. She positioned literacy as a civil right for all adults because she understood something many still miss: literacy is freedom—the freedom to work and earn a sustaining wage. The freedom to vote. The freedom to raise your children with confidence. She knew that when you help someone learn to read or write, you’re revealing new opportunities and strengthening their belief that they can achieve more. So, she took action. 

In 1962, Ruth read a report that 11,000 adults in her own city couldn’t read. She didn’t wait for permission or funding or fanfare. She stepped into the gap. With humility and unstoppable drive, she created tools, trained volunteers, and met learners where they were. That spark became Literacy Volunteers of America. That eternal spark became ProLiteracy Worldwide in 2002. That spark grew into a global movement challenging systemic barriers while driving social change. 

Ruth made it clear: literacy is not charity. It is justice. 

Her work empowered adults to pass the citizenship test. To read job applications, prescriptions, and voting ballots. To teach their children. To claim their voice. She lifted people up from the margins and pulled them into the center of their own stories. She didn’t see race, gender, income, or age as barriers. She saw them as reasons to fight harder. She believed that no one should be written off because of where they came from or what they didn’t yet know. 

And she never stopped. Not at 60. Not at 80. Not at 100. She traveled the globe to train tutors. She answered emails from learners. She wrote books. She listened. She gave. She never lost sight of the mission: a world where literacy is a right, not a privilege. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her life’s work. But she didn’t do it for medals. She did it because she believed in people—in the boundless potential of every human being.

That belief lives in us now. And it demands something from us. 

“We honor Ruth not just by remembering her—but being the kind of people, she showed us we could be. People who take action. People who don’t flinch in the face of inequality. People who build community with their hands, their hearts, and their voices,” said Mark Vineis, ProLiteracy president and CEO. “I am honored to lead ProLiteracy and carry on her work.” 

Let us move forward with her fire. Let us fight for literacy with the same moral clarity and stubborn hope that Ruth carried in her bones. Let us say, with our work, that we will not stop until every person, everywhere, has the power to read, to write, and to rise. 

 

Inspired by Ruth’s passion and commitment?

Explore our website or contact a staff member to learn how you can make a difference in people’s lives today.