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John L. Ruth was born in 1930 on a farm in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the Lower Salford Consolidated School (1944) and Lancaster Mennonite High School (1948), he was ordained a minister in the Franconia Mennonite Conference at the age of 20 after being selected by lot, and in the following year married Roma Jeanette Jacobs of Hollsopple, PA.
He graduated with an A.B. in English from Eastern Baptist College (1956), and concluded his studies at Harvard University with a doctoral thesis on the topic of early American hymnody (1968).
After teaching English at Eastern College (now Eastern University), and a year as lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Germany, he accepted an invitation from Franconia Mennonite Conference leaders to take up historical work. This was quickly followed by an invitation from Lancaster Mennonite Conference leaders to write a book on the history of the conference which was published in 2001.
John is the author of numerous books including: Conrad Grebel, Son of Zurich (1975); ‘Twas Seeding Time: A Mennonite View of the American Revolution (1976, 2025); The History of the Indian Valley and its Bank (1976); Maintaining the Right Fellowship (a history of two Mennonite conferences, 1984); A Quiet and Peaceable Life (1985); The Earth is the Lord’s: A Narrative History of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference (2001); Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School (2007); Branch: A Memoir With Pictures (2013); and This Very Ground, This Crooked Affair: A Mennonite Homestead on Lenape Land (2021). Among historical films and videos he has produced are the PBS documentaries The Amish: A People of Preservation (1976) and The Hutterites: To Care and Not to Care (1980).
From 1973 to 2018 he served as commentator on historical tours in Europe, summarized in the travelogue “Is There a Lesson?”.
In 1972-1993 he served as an associate pastor at the Salford Mennonite Church.
His wife Roma Ruth, artist for the cover of ’Twas Seeding Time, has produced many “fraktur” certificates, posters, awards, etc., based on the folk art of their home region. While adding a chapter to his republished ’Twas Seeding Time (2024-2025), author Ruth and wife moved from his birth-home near the Salford meetinghouse into a retirement community named for Salford’s schoolteacher Christopher Dock. The Ruths have two living children, nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
John was selected as an Alumnus of the Year because of his lifetime of service to the church, our community, and the world through his research and meaningful retelling of our history and heritage. His work helps root us as we together witness God’s faithfulness across the generations. He has demonstrated life-long learning and has built bridges of peace as he has developed connections across diverse groups of people. We are grateful for John’s life and his commitment to Christ’s transforming love.
