Don Block to retire as leader of Literacy Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Don Block joined the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council in 1984, it served 100 students and operated on a $50,000 budget from a room inside the East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Library. Last year, the organization, recently rebranded as Literacy Pittsburgh, served 4,500 people on a $4 million budget.

The organization announced that Mr. Block will retire as its longtime executive director at the end of 2018. Literacy Pittsburgh has hired a search firm to look for a new executive director, with applications due by July 13.

“It has been my pleasure to serve Literacy Pittsburgh as its executive director for the past 34 years,” Mr. Block said in a statement. “I have devoted my career to adult and family literacy, and while I look forward to spending more time with my family, I will miss witnessing our students’ achievements firsthand.”

The organization was founded as an all-volunteer group and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1982, with Mr. Block hired two years later as its first executive director. He had previously worked in New Castle as director of the Adult Literacy Project of NewCastle Public Library.

Today, Literacy Pittsburgh not only teaches people to read but also offers programs in English as a second language, career transitions counseling, workplace literacy, GED prep classes, digital literacy, and immigrant and refugeesupport.

“Don Block has been instrumental in shaping Literacy Pittsburgh into the vibrant, dynamic organization it is today,” board president Gary Singery said. “Under his leadership, the organization has grown in both size and scope to meet the changing needs of our community.”

Mr. Block is the son of Bill Block Sr., the former longtime publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and cousin of John Robinson Block, the Post-Gazette’s current publisher and editor-in-chief.

Literacy Pittsburgh hopes to have its new executive director in place by November.