Road Scholar is an American not-for-profit organization that provides educational travel programs primarily geared toward older adults. The organization is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1975 by friends Marty Knowlton, social activist and and David Bianco, director of residential life at the University of New Hampshire. Knowlton rejected the ageist belief that one's mind must fail as one ages. After four years of backpacking through Europe and staying in hostels, Knowlton, then in his 50s, returned to the United States to direct the youth hostel program at the University of New Hampshire. There, he and Bianco, the university administrator, decided that society needed "elder hostels" in addition to youth hostels. The program started in the summer of 1975, offering older adults noncredit classes and dormitory housing on campuses in New England—a sort of "summer school for retired people." It was officially established as a not-for-profit organization in 1977. Its program offerings expanded through the United States and Canada, and eventually internationally. By the 1990s, more than 200,000 people were learning with them each year.
Below are commissioned Snapshots from a few RS trips.
