As the immigration wrestles continue in the streets and courts and in Washington politics, America lost a great “reformer” on the matter last month. Florence Phillips died at age 95 after spending nearly 20 years helping probably thousands of newcomers to the U.S. learn the basics of belonging here and ideally become citizens.
Her English Language Learners’ (ELL) In-Home Program was based in Carson City, Nev., where in her adopted hometown Florence–a daughter of Eastern European immigrants to the Bronx–found a ready clientele. Reno’s hospitality industry provided plenty of applicants for the volunteer tutoring network that Florence established there and beyond. She attracted donations of funds as well (a wee bit from me) to cover materials and such so that her “pupils,” who usually were barely getting by, could avail the help gratis.
What they basically learned was how to be Americans–literally, in the ultimate cases, as they mastered the citizenship exam. Americanization used to be an uncontroversial objective, though now on the right and left it draws flack. (I doubt she checked anyone’s “papers.”) As a Peace Corps member well into her retirement, Florence was not easily put off by obstacles.
I learned of her efforts through a 2019 Civil Society Award from the Manhattan Institute in New York, at an occasion you can watch here, with Florence accepting. The institute bestowed such honors for several years under its former official Howard Husock.
Last year, Florence finally began to wind down, moving to Washington state with her daughter and no longer taking gifts to ELL. She tried to find a successor organization but none fit, although others around the country do similar work. Some of her tutors, however, continue on, even as the nation’s fitful embrace of immigrants takes a different shape. –June 7, 2026
Tim W. Ferguson 