Welthy Honsinger Fisher

Welthy Honsinger Fisher (September 18, 1879 – December 16, 1980) was the American founder of World Education and World Literacy Canada. Welthy was married to Frederick Bohn Fisher, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, missionary, author, and official in Methodist missionary and men's movements. Welthy was an intellectual, activist, and feminist requested by his friend Mohandas Gandhi to begin Literacy House outside of Lucknow, India, at the age of 73.

Welthy Blakesley Honsinger was born in Rome, New York, on September 18, 1879.

After graduating from Syracuse University in 1900, Welthy became a teacher at Rosebud College, a one-room school in Haverstraw, New York, where she was in charge of 15 students. In 1906, Welthy become the headmistress of the Baldwin Memorial School in Nanchang. 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.

In 1924 she married Frederick Bohn Fisher. 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 and traveled widely, returning to China and then to India.

During the 1940s, Welthy spent "semesters" studying the educational systems of Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, India and the Middle East. During this time she studied women and educational systems, and lectured throughout the U.S. on women of the world and Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. In December, 1947, six weeks before his death, Gandhi urged Welthy to return to his country to continue her work in education in India's villages.

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