The Roots and Fruits of Fasting

Mary Ruth Swope received a Bachelor of Science degree from Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina. She has a Master of Science degree in Foods and Nutrition from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She also has a doctorate from Teacher's College, Columbia University, New York City.

After seven years of high school teaching in Vocational Home Economics programs, she served as a nutritionist with the Ohio Health Department. Dr. Swope then joined the Foods and Nutrition faculty at Purdue University and later served as Head of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Nevada.

As a college administrator, she served as Head of Home Economics at Queens College, Charlotte, North Carolina. For eighteen years, prior to her retirement in December 1980, Dr. Swope was Dean of the School of Home Economics, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois.

Dr. Swope and her husband, Don, took early retirement to begin a new ministry, "Nutrition with a Mission." Through lectures and seminars, they encourage audiences to deny themselves unneeded calories, to save the money the calories would have cost, and to give it to Great Commission programs and projects.

Dr. Swope is a popular lecturer who has been a seminar speaker at PTL in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Christian Retreat in Bradendon, Florida. She has also made many TV appearances, including The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network.