https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Welthy_Honsinger_FisherWelthy Honsinger Fisher - Revision history2026-10-22T03:22:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Welthy_Honsinger_Fisher&diff=545631&oldid=prevJerilynCropper5: Added the details added tags - done2025-10-03T21:21:44Z<p>Added the details added tags - done</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American activist}}<br />
[[File:WelthyBHonsinger1918.tif|thumb|Welthy B. Honsinger, from a 1918 publication.]]<br />
'''Welthy Honsinger Fisher''' (September 18, 1879 – December 16, 1980)<ref name = "WHF WEI">[http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/aboutus/founder.cfm Our Founder: Welthy Honsinger Fisher]</ref> was the American founder of World Education and World Literacy Canada.<ref name="Canada">{{Cite web |url=http://www.worldlit.ca/welthy.html |title=World Literacy of Canada &#124; Our Founder: Welthy Fisher |access-date=2010-07-29 |archive-date=2009-05-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531173807/http://www.worldlit.ca/welthy.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> She was married to [[Frederick Bohn Fisher]], a bishop of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], missionary, author, and official in Methodist missionary and men's movements. She was an intellectual, and activist requested by her friend [[Mohandas Gandhi]] to begin Literacy House outside of [[Lucknow]], India, at the age of 73.<br />
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==Birth and family==<br />
Welthy Blakesley Honsinger was born in [[Rome, New York]], on September 18, 1879.<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name = "Obit">"Welthy Fisher, Missionary and Educator, Dies at 101," New York Times, Dec 17, 1980</ref><ref name = "WHF Book 1">Swenson, Sally. ''Welthy Honsinger Fisher: Signals of a Century - The Life and Learning of an American Educator, Literacy Pioneer and Independent Reformer in China and India 1879 - 1980''. Ontario, Canada, 1988.</ref><br />
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==Education and early work==<br />
After graduating from [[Syracuse University]] in 1900,<ref>[http://sumagazine.syr.edu/archive/spring05/features/feature3/index.html Syracuse University Magazine]</ref><ref name = "Mission">Johnson, Sharon. "Welthy Fisher: Woman With a Mission," ''New York Times'', April 2, 1978</ref> Honsinger became a teacher at Rosebud College, a one-room school in [[Haverstraw, New York]], where she was in charge of 15 students.<ref name = OISE>[http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/edu20/moments/1955welthy.html History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century]</ref> In 1906, Honsinger become the headmistress of the [[Stephen Livingstone Baldwin|Baldwin]] Memorial School in [[Nanchang]].<ref name = "Mission"/> While there, she encouraged her girls to develop into new, modern Chinese women, often against the wishes of their traditional parents. She was committed to the idea of women's independence, however, and knew that if she could give them the tools they needed through education, they could change the face of China.<ref name="WHF WEI"/><br />
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==Personal life==<br />
In 1924 she married [[Frederick Bohn Fisher]].<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name="Bio Dict">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/fisher-welthy-honsinger.php |title=Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: Welthy Honsinger Fisher |access-date=2010-07-29 |archive-date=2011-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503035432/http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/fisher-welthy-honsinger.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Fishers were well-acquainted with and respected by Gandhi and other prominent leaders of the Indian Independence movement. Following her husband's death in 1938, she wrote her husband's biography<ref name="Bio Dict"/> and traveled widely, returning to China and then to India.<ref name="OISE"/><br />
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==Literacy work==<br />
[[File:Welthy Fisher with Kedar Nath Srivastava.jpg|thumb|Founder of [[Literacy House]] Welthy Fisher with [[Kedar Nath Srivastava]] Director in [[Udaipur]] 1967-68]]<br />
During the 1940s, Fisher spent "semesters" studying the educational systems of [[Mexico]], [[Peru]], [[Bolivia]], [[Brazil]], [[India]] and the [[Middle East]].<ref name="OISE"/> During this time she studied women and educational systems, and lectured throughout the U.S. on women of the world and Chinese Industrial Cooperatives.<ref name="WHF WEI"/> In December, 1947, six weeks before his death, Gandhi urged Fisher to return to his country to continue her work in education in India's villages.<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name="OISE"/><ref name="Bio Dict"/><br />
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In 1952, at the age of 73, Fisher returned to India to work with [[Frank Laubach]], the Christian Evangelical missionary and literacy pioneer. Deciding that literacy training linked with agricultural and industrial development was a key strategy to eradicate poverty, Fisher broke with Laubach.<ref name="Bio Dict"/> In 1953, she founded [[Literacy House]] at [[Allahabad]],<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name="Bio Dict"/> a small, non-formal school that combined literacy with vocational training.<ref name="OISE"/> In 1956, [[Literacy House]] moved to Lucknow, [[Uttar Pradesh]],<ref name="WHF WEI"/> where it became famous for its effectiveness.<ref name="OISE"/><br />
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Realizing the need for literacy programs linked with social and economic development throughout the world, Fisher and her fellow literacy pioneers started two non-profit organizations, [[World Education, Inc.|World Education]] (in 1951, which started as World Literacy) and the World Literacy of Canada (in 1955).<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name="Canada"/> Fisher was closely involved in both organizations for many years, either as President or an advisor. Throughout her nineties, she traveled throughout the world. Fisher made her final trip to India as a government guest in 1980, shortly before her death at the age of 101 in [[Southbury, Connecticut]].<ref name="WHF WEI"/><ref name="OISE"/><br />
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Fisher was honored by the Indian government, which based its village literacy programs on her ideas, and issued a stamp in her likeness.<ref name="Bio Dict"/><br />
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==Awards and honors==<br />
* 1964 [[Ramon Magsaysay Award]] for International Understanding.<ref name = "Award">[http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/Biography/BiographyFisherWel.htm 1964 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding BIOGRAPHY of Welthy Honsinger Fisher]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><br />
* On March 18, 1980, the government of India issued a Welthy Honsinger Fisher [[List of postage stamps of India|commemorative postage stamp]]. She is the only American to be so honored.<ref name="OISE"/><br />
*She became the first recipient of the Nehru Literacy Award, India<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/aboutus/founder.cfm|title=Our Founder - About Us - World Education, Inc.|website=www.worlded.org|access-date=2020-01-28}}</ref><br />
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==In the media==<br />
Welthy's work in India was highlighted in the 1966 [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] article "Education Abroad: India's Literacy Lady".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080220192420/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836169,00.html "Education Abroad: India's Literacy Lady." ]</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Welthy Honsinger}}<br />
[[Category:1879 births]]<br />
[[Category:1980 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Activists from New York (state)]]<br />
[[Category:American women in World War I]]<br />
[[Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners]]<br />
[[Category:People from Rome, New York]]<br />
[[Category:Syracuse University alumni]]</div>JerilynCropper5