Ruth Colvin, a Central New Yorker, is now the oldest living woman in The National Women’s Hall of Fame, as well as the recipient of the President’s Volunteer Action Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Ruth Colvin is an icon. Ruth Colvin is a member of our community that has contributed an enormous amount to history. But not just our local history, history on an international scale," said Gregg Tripoli, the executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association.

At 104, Colvin is a model of living a balance and meaningful life.

“I’ve had many downs," she said. "Remember, I’ve lived in a man's world. When I was 12 years old, in 1929, my father was only 38. He died. They had saved for me to go to the University of Illinois. And my mother and I went to my uncle who was in charge of the estate and said it is time for Ruthy to go the university. He said no. We’re saving it for the boys."

Despite life’s challenges and failures, Ruth started a movement in her 40s — a passion project that would have a global impact.

“In the 1960s, the U.S. Census came out and it said there were 11,055 functional illiterates in Onondaga County," Colvin said. "Who were they? Why couldn’t they read? What was being done to help them?"

She immediately set out to help.

“I invited the members of the Board of Education. They were all men. And heads of Rotaries and different nonprofits. There was only one woman there," she said.

“Her work with eradicating illiteracy, not only in America but in something like 26 different developing countries around the world, this is one woman in our city who has literally changed and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. And that is amazing history," Tripoli said.

Ruth knows she could not have done this alone and without of a lot of support from the home front.

Colvin looks at a picture of her husband and says, "that’s the love of my life.”

Ruth and Robert Colvin were married 73 years. They have two children and many grandchildren.

“If you don’t do anything, you don’t make mistakes," Colvin said. "But if you do things, you do make mistakes. But you learn from your mistakes.”

But the question she’s asked most often recently is the secret to her longevity.

“There are four things that I do," she answered.

They include physical fitness, mental fitness, emotional fitness, and spiritual fitness. But she breaks this all down and more in her most recent book, out of the 12 she has written, "My Travels Through Life, Love, and Literacy." Ruth can give words of wisdom pretty succinctly.

"Three little words. Help each other. Don’t give up," she said.

Those are wise words from a woman of distinction.

On March 25, the National Women's Hall of Fame will host "An Evening with Ruth J. Colvin" virtually.