Goals in Sight

John George Hodson, Sr. is the proper subject for a book. In spite of daunting obstacles – a lifelong disability that would have made some retreat permanently to the safety of caution and dependence – he not only excelled in life he created a viable, evolving charitable organization by following his gut instincts about what needed to be done and the methods by which it might be accomplished.  Though his sight is impaired, and blindness the result, John has demonstrated extraordinary vision in crafting his life, always concentrating on the necessary and the positive and persuading others to see how full and relatively normal their lives could be if they would choose to persevere, and refuse to surrender to adversity, and accept help rather than resort to self-pity or persist in struggling on alone.

Whether discussing his early life, when he had to learn to cope with encroaching blindness or some misfortune that happened to himself or a member of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, John approached the situation with humor that didn’t belie the seriousness of the episode but that put it in context and gave it a perspective that allows one to see the more human side of the circumstances and move past it.

Laughter, discipline, perseverance and camaraderie are the staple features of John Hodson’s life, the traits that define him.

The fascinating part of John’s story is how different it could have been if he had succumbed to some of the problems that had beset him early in life.  The disease with which John was diagnosed at age six, and which still plagues him, is retinitis pignentosis, a rare inherited malady that causes the eye to absorb light rather than reflect light.  The retina slowly degenerates, eventually causing blindness.

On June 6, 1970, John and his late wife Ruth who had multiple sclerosis, had the pleasure of seeing the Multiple Sclerosis Association, the grassroots agency they had created in one room in their home, chartered as a bona fide charity by the State of New Jersey.

By doing what was obvious and necessary, and peppering individual service with much social activity, the Hodsons created a model that today influences the way many not-for-profit organizations operate.

This book offers information about MS and provides valuable resource material to show how one can make use of the many facets of MSAA’s mission to help people contending with MS, and to foster understanding in their loved ones and the community at-large.

By the time you’ve finished reading, you should understand the scope and the foresight of the legally blind man who stepped forward to build and lead the agency the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America has become.