The Society of Professional Consultants

Ruth Walker, the president of the SPC, passed away suddenly at home on September 4, 2017. She was a long-time member of the Society of Professional Consultants and served on our board of directors as secretary, vice president, and president.

A respected journalist, Ruth began her career at The Christian Science Monitor with a four-week internship during her freshman year of college. Her work at the Monitor went on to take her across North America, Europe, and Australia. A true citizen of the world, Ruth lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Bonn, Germany and Toronto, Canada before returning to her beloved Boston. Her many interesting assignments ranged from on-the-ground coverage of the 1995 Bosnian war zone to interviewing various world leaders.

She served as the Monitor's deputy editor, editorial-page editor, and online news editor before leaving to pursue a freelance career as a writer, editor, and consultant in 2006. Ruth was currently the author of Verbal Energy, a popular weekly column on language and etymology in the Monitor.

Ruth's company Charles River Wordsmithing provided writing and editorial services for articles, reports, manuals, and other communications. She helped nonprofits, small businesses, and individual professionals look good in print.

We’ll miss her sharp wit, her deeply intelligent sense of humor, and her insightful but always loving take on world events and issues.

Her family requests contributions in Ruth’s memory be made to the Salvation Army.