Success Stories

U.V. Irby, who was raised as a middle child in a family

of 13 in Mississippi, never had much of an opportunity

to learn how to read when he was growing up. As the

oldest child in the house when his mother became ill

and his father lost a leg, Irby had to quit school with only a 9th grade education to work on a 

plantation to help make ends meet, earning a mere $21 per week. “I took care of my family,

and I did it with a smile,” he said. Irby married young, at age16, and fathered eight children

along the way. He worked in construction most of his adult life, using his physical 

strength working strenuous jobs to support and educate his children.

His older children have completed high school, gone to college and enjoy successful

careers, and the younger children are following in their footsteps. That is quite an

accomplishment for anyone under those circumstances, but even more so for a man

who never learned to read.

“I promised I would get my kids an education. Me, I was always on the back burner. I

said, ‘One day, I’m going to get off the back burner and I’m coming up front. I’m going

to get my education regardless of what it takes.’ I’m at that point now,” said Irby.