Johns, R. Elizabeth

Ruth Elizabeth "Betty" Johns was born September 13, 1911 to Rev. Benjamin Murley and Louise (Powell) Johns in Factoryville, Pennsylvania. Johns attended Wyoming Seminary, a Methodist boarding school in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. from Goucher College in 1932. After college, Johns spent the summer of 1933 studying educational psychology and secondary education at Harvard, then took a job as a caseworker for the Baltimore Emergency Relief Commission (1933-34) and the Baltimore Family Welfare Association (1934-37). She took a semester's leave in the fall of 1935 to study at the New York School of Social Work. Johns was a Resident Fellow in sociology at Mount Holyoke College from 1937 to 1939, earning an M.A. in 1939. Her thesis was titled "A Changing Philosophy of Social Work." She taught sociology at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, from 1939 to 1941.

In 1941 Johns took the job of Executive Director at the University of Minnesota YWCA. She moved to the national YWCA staff in 1943. Headquartered in Boston, Johns worked with college students in the New England region. From her days at Antioch through her years working for the Student YWCA, Johns took advantage of the academic calendar to do further graduate study at various summer schools. Later, she directed summer Leadership Schools for the Student YWCA and led European Study Seminars for the Student YM/YWCA.

Johns went to Burma and Ceylon from July of 1954 to April of 1956 to train YWCA staff. On her return to the U.S., she worked for the YWCA's Foreign Division training YWCA leaders from abroad in social work methods.

In 1961 Johns became Director of publications and training for the Council for Christian Social Action of the United Church of Christ. In this capacity, she edited its monthly magazine, Social Action. Through this work Johns participated in the major social justice activities of the era, including the civil rights movement, the war on poverty, and efforts to stop the war in Vietnam.

In April of 1969 Johns moved to Church Women United where she worked as Director for International Affairs with offices at the Church Center of the United Nations. This effort aimed to expand CWU's educational campaign on behalf of global development efforts and advocate for international justice and peace-keeping.

In addition to these jobs, for many years Johns wrote a column called "New York Report" for The Guardian: a Christian Weekly Journal of Public Affairs, of Bangalore, India. She served as President of Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association of the U.S.A. for several years in the late 1960s, and was a Trustee of Grace Congregational Church in New York City.

Betty Johns died on July 1, 1971 in New York City.

From the guide to the R. Elizabeth Johns Papers MS 607., 1932-1972, (Sophia Smith Collection)