The Peace and Justice Center

Samuel Bosch of Kingston died Thursday evening, Dec. 8, 2011, in the Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Plains Township.  Sam was a long standing member of the Peace and Justice Center's Steering Committee.  In 2006, Sam received the prestigious Constance Kozel Award, for his interfaith work with all churches.  The now named Susan Merrill Constance Kozel Award, named for the Center's guiding spirit and the Center's founding director, is presented annually to an individual whose contribution to society reflects the principles of justice and peace.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, a life resident of the Wyoming Valley, Mr. Bosch was the son of Kyla and Harry Louis Bosch.

A graduate of GAR Memorial High School, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, earning two Bronze Medals for heroic action in combat, the French Croix de Guerre, the Presidential Citation Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge for his service with the 3rd Infantry Division.

After being active in the furniture manufacturing industry for 25 years, Sam opened his own accounting firm, which he operated until his retirement in 1989.

An active member of the community, he served a president of Temple B'nai B'rith in Kingston and also served as its treasurer, a trustee and chairman of the cemetery board and was honored in 2008 for his outstanding contributions to the temple and to the community.

He was an active participant in the Jewish National Fund, Reform Zionists of America, American Jewish Committee, Jewish War Veterans, Wilkes-Barre Rotary Club, serving as treasurer, member of the Peace and Justice Center, and the Masonic Orders. He was a member of the board of the Vaad Hakashrut of Luzerne County for more than 20 years.

He served as the Jewish chaplain for the Cunard Lines on a number of cruises. He was also the Jewish chaplain at the State Correctional Institution, Retreat. Mr. Bosch was a director of the state Board of the Pennsylvania Society of Public Accountants and was an associate director of the National Society of Public Accountants. He founded the continuing education seminars for accounting license credit requirements at Wilkes University.

A member of Community of Interfaith Action (CIFA), which is sponsored by the Wyoming Valley Council of Churches, Mr. Bosch received CIFA's first Human Rights Day award. He was also CIFA's Jewish emissary, representing his faith at more than 90 regional Christian churches. Interfaith Council honored him on Nov. 21, 2011.

Mr. Bosch was a member of the NAACP and the Northeastern Network Inc., and founded CAPRI, Community Against Prejudice, Racism, Intolerance.

He served as a counselor in SCORE, the Small Business Administration's special corps of retired executives.

He is survived by his wife, Thelma Bosch, to whom he was married for 68 years; his son, the Honorable Stephen Bosch; daughter, Cathy; sister, Goldie Wruble; and numerous nieces and nephews, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A service in celebration of Mr. Bosch's life: 2 p.m., Sunday, December 11, 2011, at Temple B'nai B'rith, 408 Wyoming Ave., Kingston, Rabbi Roger Lerner officiating. Interment, private, at the convenience of the family. Private Shiva at the request of Mr. Bosch.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the charity of the donor's choice .

ONE HUMAN FAMILY

In my opinion, we will never have peace in this world until all religions make peace with each other.

I consider a true religion any that will accept and treat the stranger as one of its own and will work to making all people of the universe ONE HUMAN FAMILY.

I believe that all who are of this universe, no matter the color of our skin, the difference in our features, the way we address and pray to our Creator, are all ONE HUMAN FAMILY, and that Creator loves every one of us.

SAMUEL BOSCH, rest in peace, Dec. 08, 2011.

My first meeting with Mr and Mrs Bosch was random.  It was at our Wilkes-Barre, PA's Barnes and Noble Booksellers , when we had our Noble Laureates: 2050 Teen Reading Group activity.  It was attended by our Wilkeswood neighborhood kids and SGI-USA Bloomsburg District/ Central Pa Chapter members as well as our SGI-USA Philadelphia Area Leaders.  Mrs Bosch shared her reflections on World War 2; Mr Bosch shared his card.

His "ONE HUMAN FAMILY" philosophy (please see below) was imprinted on the back of his calling card.

Thank you Rod for letting me know.
bcb

ONE HUMAN FAMILY

In my opinion, we will never have peace in this world until all religions make peace with each other.

I consider a true religion any that will accept and treat the stranger as one of its own and will work to making all people of the universe ONE HUMAN FAMILY.

I believe that all who are of this universe, no matter the color of our skin, the difference in our features, the way we address and pray to our Creator, are all ONE HUMAN FAMILY, and that Creator loves every one of us.

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday, September 25, 2011. A biologist by training, she founded the Greenbelt Movement and made visible the links between trees and soil, war and peace, and the human body and spirit. We replay our beautiful 2006 conversation in her memory.
A Remarkable Woman for All People and Places.  May she rest in peace.

Dr. Maathai, one of the most widely respected women on the continent, played many roles — environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977. Its mission was to plant trees across Kenya to fight erosion and to create firewood for fuel and jobs for women.

Dr. Maathai was as comfortable in the gritty streets of Nairobi’s slums or the muddy hillsides of central Kenya as she was hobnobbing with heads of state. She won the Peace Prize in 2004 for what the Nobel committee called “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa.

Her Green Belt Movement has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations’ environmental program. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”

Dr. Maathai toured the world, speaking out against environmental degradation and poverty, which she said early on were intimately connected. But she never lost focus on her native Kenya. She was a thorn in the side of Kenya’s previous president, Daniel arap Moi, whose government labeled the Green Belt Movement “subversive” during the 1980s.

Mr. Moi was particularly scornful of her leading the charge against a government plan to build a huge skyscraper in one of central Nairobi’s only parks. The proposal was eventually scrapped, though not long afterward, during a protest, Dr. Maathai was beaten unconscious by the police.

When Mr. Moi finally stepped down after 24 years in power, she served as a member of Parliament and as an assistant minister on environmental issues until falling out of favor with Kenya’s new leaders and losing her seat a few years later.

In 2008, after being pushed out of government, she was hit with tear gas by the police during a protest against the excesses of Kenya’s entrenched political class.

Home life was not easy, either. Her husband, Mwangi, divorced her, saying she was too strong-minded for a woman, by her account. When she lost her divorce case and criticized the judge, she was thrown in jail.

“Wangari Maathai was known to speak truth to power,” said John Githongo, an anticorruption campaigner in Kenya who was forced into exile for years for his own outspoken views. “She blazed a trail in whatever she did, whether it was in the environment, politics, whatever.”

Wangari Muta Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya, in the foothills of Mount Kenya. A star student, she won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan., receiving a degree in 1964. She earned a master of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. She also taught at the university as an associate professor and was chairwoman of its veterinary anatomy department in the 1970s.

I am so glad I experienced Wangari Maathai in person, in her time on this Earth. She had a wonderful voice and an infectious whole-body laugh. You will even hear her sing if you listen to the end of this hour. I experienced her as immensely gracious but rather subdued until she started speaking about her work. Then, sitting across from her, it was not hard to imagine that this woman had stood up to a dictator and won, and that she had fought off encroaching desert by leading thousands of people to plant tens of millions of trees.

Wangari Maathai was born in colonial Africa in 1940. She excelled in science and trained as a biologist. She became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D. and the first woman to chair a department at the University of Nairobi. In the mid-1970s, she started planting trees with rural Kenyan women who were feeling the consequences of soil erosion and deforestation in their daily lives. They walked far distances for water, had too little firewood and fodder for animals, and lacked nutritious food and sources of income.

Planting trees was both a simple response to their crisis and a dramatically effective one. It restored a simple link that had been broken between human beings and the land on which they live — the kind of link that we often take for granted until, as Maathai said, we move away from the world we know — spatially, economically, or spiritually. For several years before her environmental work began, Wangari Maathai had been away from Kenya. When she returned, she saw with fresh eyes that "the earth was naked. For me, the mission was to try to cover it with green."

For a quarter century, Wangari Maathai and the women of her Green Belt Movement faced off against powerful economic forces and Kenya's tyrannical ruler, Daniel arap Moi. She was beaten and imprisoned. Nevertheless, the movement spread to more than 600 communities across Kenya and into over 30 countries. After Moi's fall from power in 2002, Wangari Maathai was elected to her country's parliament with 98 percent of the vote.

My curiosity, of course, always drives towards the spiritual and ethical questions and convictions that drive human action. And though I could find few interviewers who had asked Wangari Maathai about this, she was happy to talk about the faith behind her ecological passion — a lively fusion of Christianity, real world encounters with good and evil, and the ancestral Kikuyu traditions of Kenya's central highlands. She grew up there, schooled by Catholic missionaries, and she remained a practicing Catholic. But life taught her to value anew the Kikuyu culture of her family's ancestry.

The Kikuyu traditionally worshipped under trees and honored Mount Kenya — Africa's second highest mountain — as the place where God resides. That mountain, as Wangari Maathai only later understood scientifically, is the source of most of Kenya's rivers. And the fig trees considered most sacred by the Kikuyu — those it was impermissible to cut down — had the deepest roots, bringing water from deep below the earth to the surface. The volatility of the environment across the Horn of Africa now is compounded by the fact that those trees have been cut away systematically for decades, along with millions of others, by colonial Christians as well as African industrialists.

We in the West are in the process of relearning something that Wangari Maathai, from the vantage point of Africa, realized long ago: ecology is a matter of life and death, peace and war. In awarding her the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel committee noted that "when we analyze local conflicts, we tend to focus on their ethnic and religious aspects. But it is often the underlying ecological circumstances that bring the more readily visible factors to the flashpoint." In places as far flung as the Sudan, the Philippines, Mexico, Haiti and the Himalayas, deforestation, encroaching desert, and soil erosion are among the present root causes of civil unrest and war. Wangari Maathai cited a history of inequitable distribution of natural resources, especially land, as a key trigger in the Kenyan post-election violence in 2008.

As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Wangari Maathai a religious question I rarely pose directly, because it is so intimate and so difficult to answer directly. I asked her, rather baldly, to tell me about her image of God. She told me that she had often revisited two concepts of God that stood in some tension, side by side, in her upbringing — the Christian God who was painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the God of Kikuyu culture who lived on Mount Kenya. "Now where is God?," Wangari Maathai asked me in response. Here's how she answered her own question:
"I tell myself that of course now we're in a completely new era when we are learning to find God not in a place, but rather in ourselves, in each other, in nature. In many ways it's a contradiction, because the Church teaches you that God is omnipresent. Now if He is omnipresent, He's in Rome, but He could also be in Kenya. His shape, His size, His color … I have no idea. You are influenced by what you hear, what you see. But when I look at Mount Kenya — it is so magnificent, it is so overpowering, it is so important in sustaining life in my area — that sometimes I say yes, God is on this mountain."

In February 2004 when we were appointed as an SGI-USA District in Wilkes-Barre,PA
we had already started learning a great deal about Wangari Maathai when we attended
Kosen-Rufu Gongyo at the Philadelphia kaikan because Daisaku Ikeda shared her story with all in the SGI-USA.
I feel as though we ve lost a great global citizen and friend.
Thank you,
Beverly Borlandoe
SGI-USA NICHIREN BUDDHIST DISTRICT
Wilkes-Barre, Scranton & Bloomsburg,PA
Member Care Advisor

The Rev. William R. Ribando, C.S.C., died peacefully Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, at Holy Cross House on the campus of the University of Notre Dame after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.  He was a long-time supporter of the Peace and Justice Center, usually delivering his donation in person, on foot, to the office. He headed the Theology Department for many years and was a good friend of Father Jim Doyle, CSC. May he rest in peace!

A native of Williamsport, he was the son of Dorothy Nardi Ribando and her late husband, William Ribando.

A 1956 graduate of Williamsport High School, he joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1958 and graduated from Stonehill College in 1961.

After four years of study at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was ordained a priest Dec. 19, 1964. The Rev. Ribando joined the faculty at King's College in 1966 and taught until 1974, when he was elected Provincial Superior of the Eastern Province. He obtained a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of America in 1970. While serving as Provincial, the Rev. Ribando visited Holy Cross missions in Bangladesh, India, Chile and Peru.

He returned to King's in 1983, where he resumed teaching and served several times as chairman of the theology department. The Rev. Ribando was named the Manus-Cooney Distinguished Professor of Humanities and was granted status as Professor Emeritus upon his retirement from King's College.

The Rev. Ribando was well-known in the Diocese of Scranton, filling in at various churches for Sunday Mass, officiating at the weddings of his former King's students and presiding at the sacraments of his friends, relatives and acquaintances.

He was especially welcome at his birth parish, Mater Dolorosa in Williamsport, where he presided regularly during weekend visits to his aging parents.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by three sisters, Kay Tighe, Mountain View, Calif.; Paula Ribando, Hershey and Dorothy Kinsman and her husband, Donald, Fort Thomas, Ky.; a brother, Robert Ribando and his wife, Cheryl, Charlottesville, Va.; five nieces; and three great-nieces.

A visitation will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Chapel of Mary on the campus of Stonehill College in North Easton, Mass., with a Vigil Service at 7:45 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Chapel of Mary on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery on the Stonehill College campus. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at King's College at a later date.

The family would like to thank the wonderful staff and fellow residents at Holy Cross House for the loving care Father Bill received over the last four years.

David Spak, 54, of Ashley passed away Friday, April 29, 2011, in Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Plains Township.

He was born in Wilkes-Barre on Oct. 27, 1956, the son of the late Thomas and Genevieve Blat Spak. David was a life resident of Ashley. He was a member of the graduating Class of 1974 of Bishop Hoban High School, Wilkes-Barre. He was a member of St. Leo's/Holy Rosary Church, Ashley.

He was employed by Luzerne Optical for the past three years as a mailroom clerk. He was also employed by Jewelcor, Wilkes-Barre and Exeter offices, and Offset Paperback, Dallas. David enjoyed gardening and spending time with his family, especially his nieces and nephews. He particularly loved hiking and camping throughout the United States and Canada.

Surviving are brothers, Thomas Spak and his wife, Cathy, Wyoming; James, at home; sisters, Eileen Szychowski and her husband, Clem, Bel Air, Md.; and Maryann Spak, Scottsdale, Ariz.; nieces and nephews, Matt, Brian and Joelle Szychowski; Kaitlyn, Brittany and Jillian Spak; uncle, Joe Blat, Larksville; and numerous cousins also survive.

Funeral services will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday from George A. Strish Inc. Funeral Home, 105 N. Main St., Ashley, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30 a.m. from St. Leo's/Holy Rosary Church, Manhattan St., Ashley. Interment will be in St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township. Friends may call from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory at the funeral home to the Sierra Club or the Peace and Justice Center of Wilkes-Barre.

May she rest in peace

Dear Friends of Peace: 

Stan Gutin, longstanding peacemaker, has gone home.  May he rest in peace.

Stanley and Esther Gutin are of the original founders group that led to our Peace and Justice Center.

Stanley S. Gutin of Brooks Estates, Pittston, and for many years of Wilkes-Barre, died suddenly but peacefully Monday, Feb. 28, 2011, at the VNA Hospice at Heritage House.

A professor of English at Wilkes University for 33 years, he was a student of literature and therefore of both language and humanity all his life.

Stan was born in Baltimore on May 23, 1927, the youngest of Louis and Sarah Gutin's four children.

After high school and a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, he earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in English from the University of Maryland. His PhD was from the University of Pennsylvania.

During and after his tenure at Wilkes, Stan contributed to the community through quiet and personal action. He gave poetry readings, served on the board of Family Services, lobbied for better public education, tutored GED students and taught English as a second language.

After his retirement, he taught adult education classes, and for the last dozen years he ran a play-reading group.

Through all Stan was loved and supported by his wife, Esther. Their 56 years together were spent working, traveling, raising kids, loving an extended family, rejoicing in friends and laughing, because Stan was one funny guy.

Stan was predeceased, in addition to his parents; his siblings, Rose Gordon and Melvin Gutin; and his grandson, Michael Perri.

He is survived by his wife; his daughter and son-in-law, Madeline and Mark Perri, and their son, David, Wilmington, Del.; his son, Steven, and his daughter, Rachel, Philadelphia; his sister, Sylvia Fisher, Baltimore; and by a small and devoted army of nieces and nephews in several generations.

The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rosenberg Funeral Chapel Inc., 348 S. River St., Wilkes-Barre, with Rabbi Roger Lerner officiating. Interment will follow in B'nai B'rith Cemetery.

Shiva will be observed for Stan from 7 to 9 pm Thursday; 2 to 4 p.m. Friday; and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at 211 Pollock Drive, Pittston.

Friends:

I apologize for sending a mass e-mail out like this.  But, as many of you know, these past weeks have been anything but normal. 

My uncle, Clint Rabb, passed away a little over two weeks ago. Our family is doing our best to celebrate his life rather than focus on this loss.  We all feel that his life was a true gain for the world.

He spent most of his life supporting people in countries all over the world, starting congregations, providing aid, helping set up systems and infrastructure, etc.  It is a life's work that, unassisted, will not continue in his absence, because it is so intertwined with the man he was.

As a result, we've made The Clinton Clark Rabb Charity in his name (www.clintonclarkrabbcharity.org) to make sure that his life work is continued though his life will not.  Because you all are friends, I thought I'd invite you all to share in spreading the word of this charity to any and all who you may think would like to help.

My aunt wrote the story of the past couple weeks and I've pasted it below.  Thank you all, and again... please forward my uncle’s life story and our charity information to the people you love and respect.  Our family is excited about being able to continue to provide support to Clint's various missions and humanitarian efforts in far places like Haiti, Laos, Cambodia, Africa, etc.

The tragedy in Haiti has taken thousands upon thousands of lives, among them, my sister Suzanne's husband, Clint. This is the story of Clinton Clark Rabb's last days. Clinton was a missionary. He worked for the General Board of Global Ministries of the Methodist Church, most recently as Executive General Secretary of Mission Volunteers. He traveled the globe assisting and advocating for those who could not advocate for themselves—the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, the sick. He was in Haiti for a meeting with various churches and organizations addressing Haitian health care needs.

********

French rescue workers dig through the rubble and cut through the rebar toward my brother-in-law.

"Clinton? Clinton?" they say.

"Yeah? What do you need?" Clint lifts his head to see how he can help them.

What do you need?

When my husband heard those words on the MSNBC video we huddled around the television to watch, he turned to me and said, "That's Clint's legacy. Those words tell the whole story of who he is."  We thought, at that point, that our dear brother would be quickly rescued and we celebrated that he was alive. That video was such a gift. In that easy-going, soft Texan drawl, his words were a song to us. We didn't know then that they would be the last words we would hear him speak.

After 55 hours of entrapment in a 6 x 8 x 3 ft. high space, Clint, his friend and co-worker, Sam, and their friend and consultant, Jim, had been found together in the rubble of the Hotel Montana. Before we saw the MSNBC video, we had received a crackling, hard-to-hear call from Haiti. A London TImes reporter called my sister to tell her that her husband was alive. He told her that he asked Clint, as he lay trapped, if there was any message he wanted to get out. There was. "Tell my wife I deeply love her and we're going to survive this," he said. "And I'm praying for all those who did not survive."

We (my sister, my husband and I, five of her children and a daughter-in-law) had been huddled over computers and in front of the TV for three days searching for any information, monitoring Facebook, other media and websites, trying to get news of Clint and his co-workers—who had not been heard from since the quake. We narrowed their whereabouts down to the Hotel Montana, which was frightening since the hotel had been leveled. We had practically given up hope, when, at 11:30 p.m. Friday night that call from the Times reporter came in. Those moments were jubilant, incredulous, wonderful. We hugged, we cried, we looked at each other in disbelief. Clint was alive? He was alive!

Jim was pulled out virtually unscathed, but Clint and Sam had large slabs of concrete crushing on their legs. Laying right next to Clint, Sam passed away before he was freed, and 15 hours after Jim was pulled out, the French surgeons finished their amputation of Clint's legs to free him.

Days later, in a voice choked with emotion, Jim would tell us via the phone about their time in their concrete trap. Jim told us they sang "Peace Like a River." They talked about life and family. They prayed. Jim's cellphone was their only light, but they used it to assess their situation. Jim said they had been in the hotel lobby, having just arrived for dinner, when the ground shook. Jim said he turned to Clint and said, "earthquake," but before they could react the whole building collapsed on them. The hotel's desk held some of the concrete, allowing them to survive in that small space. Jim told us that Sam and Clint were in so much pain, but he said that Clint didn't talk of his pain; he spent most of his time trying to relieve Sam's pain. Jim would break off pieces of flat plaster from above them and hand them to Clint, and Clint would push on Sam to shift his weight and push the plaster underneath, to hold his body in different positions to relieve the stress. He said Clint would try to distract Sam from his pain with conversation and song. They were so thirsty as they lay there hour after hour. At one point, Clint told them, "When I get out of here, I'm gonna get a bunch of ice cold Coke Zeros. I'm going to line them all up on a table and drink them all." Jim said Clint paused, and then said, "No, not Coke Zeros, make that REAL Cokes." They all laughed—why think of calories!

Thanks to the French surgeons and a search and rescue team from Fairfax, VA, Clint made it out of the rubble and was flown to Guantanamo Bay and then to the North Broward Medical Center in Florida. He was in critical but stable condition. The French surgeons who had worked on his amputations in hot, 3 foot high quarters, wept and hugged as the helicopter took him away. My sister was called when he arrived in Florida, and she and one son flew down immediately.

When Suzanne arrived in Florida, she was taken to see Clint. He was on a ventilator and he was heavily sedated. When Clint was able to see Suzanne, his eyes grew wide. He tried to smile, but he had so many tubes, it wasn't really possible. She told him how much she loved him. She told him how we had all been searching for him nonstop and that we had not given up. She told him he was home, she assured him he had love and support from around the world. His eyes well up with tears and locked on hers. Within seconds he was asleep, the sedation was so heavy. She thought she was saying, "hello" to the rest of their life. Sure, he would face his life as a double amputee, but if anyone could meet that challenge it was Clint. Sadly, she was saying "goodbye."

The next morning Clint's body crashed. His body rejected the dialysis. There were too many factors—we don't yet know the details—only that with my sister praying at his side, he left his body. My sister lay on his bed next to him for a long while after they took all the tubes and equipment away. She talked to him and held his hand. She told him that she would try to carry on his legacy of selfless service to God and mankind.

At Clint's memorial service, several Methodist Bishops spoke. They talked about how Clint was always larger than life; how he was a maverick; a man who did not suffer bureaucracy well. He was fearless in going where people needed help, risking his own life and getting things done. About 1000 people attended his Austin memorial service. I stood next to my sister some of while she received nearly all of them. They all said practically the same thing: Clint cared about people. Old, young, any color, any race. If they needed any kind of assistance, he tried to get it to them. If he couldn't get through the red tape, he went under it, or around it, or over it. Those who cannot speak for themselves lost an advocate, a strong, confident, capable one, when Clinton Rabb passed away. One of the speakers at his memorial service said Clint was 50% theologian, 50% family man, 50% MacGyver, and 50% Indiana Jones. Everyone laughed; it was so true.

As we made plans for his memorial, one of us thought out loud the idea of starting a charity in Clint's name. Clint was always frustrated by the red tape of bureaucracy and how it got in the way of getting things done. Why not truly carry on his work with a charity that funded those who were really getting out there where there was grave need. Why not collect monies and search for groups that get those monies to the people who need it, without all the bureaucratic red tape larger organizations face? Clint's brother, Robert, (cut from the same cloth, and bearing a striking resemblance to Clint) already was doing just that. If he could do it, so could we, or we could all do it together. In a matter of days, Suzanne's sons had researched, filed the forms, and started a public charity: The Clinton Clark Rabb Charity. The charity will, initially, send monies collected to Haiti. In time, we hope to connect to people and organizations who are supplying valuable aid around the world—with the least overhead—and help them.

I spoke to my sister, Suzanne, who said that when she grieves, she grieves for Clint, but in so doing, she grieves for Haiti. And when she grieves for Haiti, she grieves for every individual whose circumstances are so overwhelming that they are helpless to help themselves. She said this charity would be a way for people who feel as she does to channel their own feelings of helplessness in situations like this. If you were moved by this story of a humble man who lived a life of service, and never really thought he was special for doing so, we ask you to please honor him and others like him by going to http://www.clintonclarkrabbcharity.org and donating whatever you can. We can't all travel around the world to aid those less fortunate, but we can open our hearts and wallets to those who can.

If you have already contributed all you can to aid the Haitian efforts, we certainly understand. But if not, or if you would like to particularly honor Clint, your donation is appreciated and 100% will go to relief efforts.

Please feel free to forward this story and our charity information to the people you love and respect. Thank you.

Thank you for reading...
Robin

Please convey to Beth-Ann:

As time goes by, the remarkable life of service of Bob Witkowski will be chiseled as a monument of right works. Bob never walked away from injustice.
Like a spiritual practice he gave of himself, large and small, every day of his life. He was unabashed, jolly, mirthful, focused, caring, and without ego. Few of us can match his willingness to give of himself.

Chris Miller

Our beloved Susan Merrill has gone Home. 
She dedicated her life to peace as a talented leader and tireless peacemaker.
Susan Lang Merrill, 68, died March 31, 2010 at home in Olympia, WA, after a long illness.
Susan was born in Albany, NY, daughter of Edward Hill Lang and Mary Stowell Lang. She graduated from Cornell University in 1964, and did graduate work in radiation biology and biophysics at the University of Rochester. Beginning in 1973 she lived in Shavertown, PA, before retiring with her husband to the Pacific Northwest in 2004, where her children and grandchildren live.
In Pennsylvania, Susan was an active member of North Branch Friends Meeting (Quakers). Susan helped found and worked as a Co-Administrator of the Peace and Justice Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Moving to Olympia 6 years ago, Susan became active in the Olympia Friends Meeting, as well as the Capitol Land Trust, and the statewide Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy.
During her life, Susan felt passionately about issues of peace, social justice, and the environment, taking on many leadership roles in organizations to help create positive change. Susan and her family spent portions of many summers at their family?s cabin in the Adirondacks. They frequently traveled around the country camping and hiking.
Susan is survived by her husband of 40 years, Sam Merrill, and two children: Andrew Merrill and his wife Cindy of Portland, OR, and Amy Merrill of Seattle, WA. Susan has four grandchildren: Amber, Nathan, Lucy and Ella.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to the Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy, 838 Hiawatha Pl. S, Seattle, WA, 98144; the Capitol Land Trust, 209 Fourth Ave. E, Suite 205, Olympia, WA, 98501; or the Peace and Justice Center, 63 North Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18701.

There will be a memorial service for Susan on Sunday, April 11, at 3 pm at Olympia Friends Meetinghouse, 219 ?B? Street, Tumwater, WA, 98512.

May she rest in peace.

[note: The Susan Merrill Constance Kozel Award is now the new name of this prestigious award.]

January 12, 2010

Kimberly Biggs-Keil, 45, of Bear Creek Township, went home on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

 

Born in New Castle, Del., Kim was a daughter of Raymond Nelson and Jean Hart Biggs.

She was a 1982 graduate of William Penn High School, New Castle, Del., and earned an education degree from the University of Delaware in 1986.

Kim was a French teacher at the Swiftwater Intermediate School in the Pocono Mountain School District. Prior to that, she spent 13 years employed by Catholic Social Services in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas as an immigration and refugee advocate. Kim also taught English as a second language at Wyoming Seminary Upper School during the summer.

Kim loved to teach. Being a true education advocate, she was a founding member of the Bear Creek Community Charter School and was instrumental in bringing the charter school to fruition. She was enthusiastic about the arts and literature and was an avid reader. Kim treasured her association with the Lake Aleeda Goddesses.

Kim was a tireless worker and served as a volunteer at the Peace Center, Wilkes-Barre. She was passionate about helping anyone in need, whether it was a charitable organization or a single person who needed assistance. Kim made everyone feel special and anyone who knew her considered her to be their wittiest and most honest friend. Above all, her deepest love and commitment was to her children, Louisa and Travis; and to her husband, Eric.

Preceding her in death was a brother, Douglas Biggs.

Surviving, in addition to her parents, are her husband, Eric; daughter Louisa and son Travis, both at home; brothers David Biggs, Atlanta, Ga.; Timothy Biggs, Middletown, Md., and Jeffrey Biggs, Middletown, Del.; as well as two nieces and a nephew.

A funeral service was held on Saturday in the First Presbyterian Church, 97 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre. The Rev. Robert Zanicky, host.

Big Ed, (father of long-time peace and justice activist, Naed Smith) has passed on Home.
May he rest in peace.

Edward (Ned) J. Smith Sr., 69, of Beaumont Street, Warrior Run, died Wednesday morning, May 12, 2010, in Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, he was the son of the late Leroy J. and Josephine Reiley Smith and was a graduate of GAR High School.
Ned served in the Army during the Vietnam War and was employed by the Pennsylvania State Employment Examiners Office as an employment examiner.

He was a member of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Wilkes-Barre, the Wilkes-Barre Township American Legion, Post 815, Mayflower 288 Club and was a former football coach for the Heights Packers.

Ned is survived by his son, Edward J. (Ned) Smith Jr., Harrisburg; daughters, Jennifer Smith Oechsle, Shavertown; Kristen Prutzman, Forty Fort; Lauren Smith, Warrior Run; two grandchildren, Lauren and Owen Oechsle; sisters, Joan Gilligan, Catonsville, Md.; Ann Zwiebel, Hanover Township; Dorothy Valerius, Hanover Township; brother, Lawrence Smith, Kensington, Md.; nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held 9 a.m. Saturday at Lehman Family Funeral Service Inc., 689 Hazle Ave., Wilkes-Barre, with a 9:30 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial in St. Patrick's Church, 316 Parrish St., Wilkes-Barre. The Rev. William Pickard, chaplain of St. Joseph's Center and Lackawanna County Prison, will officiate. Interment will be in St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township. Friends may call Saturday, 8:30 a.m. until the time of service.

Memorial contributions, if desired, may be made to Harrisburg Catholic Worker House, 1440 Market St., Harrisburg, PA 17103.

Condolences may be e-mailed to info@lehmanfuneralhome.com.
Published in Citizens' Voice from May 13 to May 14, 2010

Bob Witkowski has gone on to that great Peace Vigil in Heaven.
 
Bob passed on March 20, 2010, at home and in complete peace.

Many will recall Bob helping out at the Salvation Army in Hanover Township, PA,
or as the former owner of Gratefully Yours on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.

He was a 1974 graduate of Kings College.

Bob was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Church of Wyoming Valley in the Back Mountain area.
He was actively involved in his community, and worked passionately over the last four decades for peace and justice issues.
He was a long-time member and Steering Committee member of the Peace and Justice Center of Wilkes-Barre, PA.

He also supported the Chickory House, a nonprofit folk music organization also in Wilkes-Barre, PA;
Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty;
Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern;
Northeast Pennsylvania Folklore Society;
and Bob was the Pennsylvania contact for The War Resister's League.

Bob was the loving father of two children, the late Kevin M. Witkowski of Wilkes-Barre, PA,
and Beth-Ann Witkowski, of Boston, MA.
He also leaves Beth-Ann's husband, Jason Dorfman, of Boston, MA.
Bob was the eldest of five siblings.
Along with his father and daughter, he leaves his brother, Kenneth of Stockholm, NJ;
sister Elaine Rutigliano, her husband Joseph, and their children, Joseph Jr.,
Melissa, Lisa, and Nicholas of Wood Ridge, NJ;
brother Thomas and his partner Mark Davila of Arlington, MA;
and brother James, his wife Susan, and their children Aminta and Shelby of Wood Ridge, NJ.
He also has cousins in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to the Peace Center,
63 North Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18702-1317.
Phone: 570-823-9977
E-mail: peacewb@verizon.net
PayPal donations via: http://www.peaceandjusticecenter.com/

March 24, 2010, Times Leader

Recalling man of peace

WILKES-BARRE – A peaceful fighter who was known by friends, family and local activists for his passion for social justice issues will be sorely missed.

Robert C. “Bob” Witkowski, born in Jersey City, N.J., and formerly of Wilkes-Barre, passed away Saturday from a massive heart attack at his Ashley home. The longtime peace activist who dedicated four decades to animal rights and free speech movements was 57.

A candlelight vigil to remember his life was held Tuesday evening on Public Square, a place where Witkowskiwas oftentimes seen with signs with messages such as “Honk twice for peace.”

In 1984, Rose Yanks of Wilkes-Barre was a senior in high school.

Yanks, then 17, skipped school for the day and came to the Square, where she saw an older man with long hair, singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

“I ran right up to him and started singing it with him,” said Yanks, 43. “Him and I were best friends ever since.”

Yanks said she taught Witkowski how to tie-die years ago when he owned his shop, Gratefully Yours, on South Main Street, in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

Witkowski, a member of the steering committee for the Interfaith Resource Center for Peace and Justice, died one day after he and other local activists observed on Public Square the seventh anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

Mario Fiorucci, 52, of Sugar Notch, said Witkowski would always put himself on the front line by speaking out and protesting.

One of those times was a political protest in front of the federal courthouse in 2001. Witkowski is shown in a photo with Fiorucci and activist Jim Spock holding up election reform posters the same day as President George W. Bush’s first inauguration.

During that year Witkowski told Fiorucci he wanted to start a local chapter of the Green Party.

“I’ll miss the times when we were always together trying to recruit people for the Green Party,” Fiorucci said. “Bob knew the ropes. He knew how everything worked.”

There will be a memorial service and celebration of Bob Witkowski's
life on May 22nd, at noon, at the Memorial Shrine Cemetery on 8th St
in Wyoming up near Francis Slocum park. At that time, Bob's ashes will
be buried near his son Kevin's grave. The event will be grave side
weather permitting. If you would like to contribute any words,
thoughts, or songs at the time of the memorial and celebration, please
contact me, Beth-Ann, Bob's daughter, and let me know.
Please feel free to send this email on to others who may be interested
in attending or participating.
http://bobwitkowski.blogspot.com/

Beth-Ann Witkowski

Pax Christi USA mourns the passing of Bishop Leroy Matthiesen
 
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace was outspoken in his hope for a nuclear-free world

Washington, D.C.—Pax Christi USA mourns the loss of one of its most outspoken and prophetic bishops, Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen, retired bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Amarillo, Texas. Bishop Matthiesen died on Monday, March 22 after a brief illness. In the summer of 2009, Pax Christi USA honored him as the recipient of the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award.

“Bishop Matthiesen was an incredible witness and an inspiration to all of us in Pax Christi USA,” stated Dave Robinson, Pax Christi USA Executive Director. “We have lost one of the great voices in the movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons.”

In the 1980s, Bishop Matthiesen received what he has said was his own “personal wake-up call” when the Reagan administration announced that Pantex, the factory outside of Amarillo that is the final assembly point of all nuclear weapons in the U.S., would begin assembling neutron bombs. Bishop Matthiesen wrote a column in his diocesan newspaper, asking the people of his diocese to reconsider their continuation at the plant and to seek employment in peaceful pursuits. Because of his stance, he suffered personal attacks and angry denunciations locally and nationally. But his stand for peace also energized the Catholic peace movement and garnered support from the Texas bishops, who ultimately influenced the U.S. bishops in writing their watershed pastoral letter on the nuclear arms race, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response.”

“We are all grateful for how Bishop Matthiesen raised fundamental questions regarding the morality of nuclear weapons,” stated Sr. Kathleen Pritty, RSM, interim chair of the National Council of Pax Christi USA. “Bishop Matthiesen led by example, demonstrating in word and deed the force of his convictions and his belief in the gospel.”

Bishop Matthiesen’s work for justice began in his years as a young parish priest. In the 1950s, he saw first-hand the injustice of racism when a waitress refused to serve one of the young girls with whom he was celebrating a victory following their basketball game because she was black. Fr. Matthiesen decided that the entire group would leave. Later, as editor of the diocesan newspaper, he initiated a series of articles on the racial situation in the Texas Panhandle. The series won an award from the Catholic Press Association, but also engendered the resentment of some white Catholics in the diocese.

A funeral mass is scheduled for 11am at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Amarillo. A second service is planned at St. Boniface Church in Olfen, at 10am on Monday.

“He was a great man, rooted in his belief that it was the responsibility of people of faith and conscience to change the world in which we live,” stated Robinson.

Click here for more information on Bishop Matthiesen's passing.

We also invite Facebook users to post their condolences, stories, etc for Bishop Matthiesen on our Facebook page. Click here to read or to post if you are a FB user.
______________

For more information, contact:

Johnny Zokovitch, Pax Christi USA Program Director:
(352) 219-8419 or johnnypcusa@yahoo.com

How can one not take from this the fact that
our existence is so temporal, so fleeting, so non-permanent
from moment to moment.  There are no guarantees.  Each
moment is a gift, and it is a gift moreso to others, than ourselves.
The deceased is sadly missed by those remaining; he or she who's passed
weeps not.

- brad

I glanced at the page on Maggie the other day when it came in, and read it carefully, just now, through tears. WHAT A LEGACY! What a reminder to us, as human as Maggie, to keep on.

The fall, the local Quaker group had a one-day retreat. Part of the time was walking in silence around the grounds and reading the quotes posted on trees, rocks, fences. At the end of the day we could take some. On the refrigerator right now is one of the quotes I took:
   "No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do."  Love to all, Bev

Rodrigo,
I am so sorry about Maggi, I didn't know that she was sick.
 
She helped me, when I needed,  and she always showed me kidness. She was Real Women of Value.
I will miss her.
Rosa.

Murray and I are sending a donation to the Peace Center in loving memory of Maggie Ritz.  Maggie, in my humble opinion, is one of the presons who comprised the foundation upon which the Peace Center now stands.  I'm so grateful that I had an opportunity to know Maggie through our work at the Peace Center.  Warmest regards, Elly Miller

Hi, this is Bev Williams. I remember the first time we went to Maggie's home in W-B for a Pax Christi special meeting. Folks were sitting on the stairs and having a great time together. Wally and I were new in town, Protestant, but Maggie made us feel like special guests. I have such fond memories of working with her on Peace Center projects and her sharing our joy when our grandson Craig was born. Many, many thanks for inviting us to her wonderful 80th birthday celebration!

This Wally Williams. Maggie made me seem to be at home when we went to the Pax Christi meetings despite we were protestants. I also enjoyed working with Maggie when we worked together running a furniture bank with Sister Barbara. Maggie and Sister Barbara did the hard work of planning the pickup and delivery trips and deciding whether the offered furniture was useful, and often having to say the offered furniture was not good enough to give to anyone. I just lifted and drove.
One time Maggie left a folding chair at our house. The next I was going by I stopped to take her chair home. She wasn't at her home. I went downstairs to leave the chair where she worked and asked where Maggie's desk was. The men who worked with her there really chewed me out for calling her Maggie. They thought I had insulted her. I didn't even know her name was Marguerite! Those men really respected and loved her.

When I first met Maggie, I was in my mid 30's and she in her early 60's. As unbelievable as it was, we became good friends. I never saw Maggie as "old". She had energy and the desire to explore new ways to live out her faith, through service or lifestyle.

Gildersleeve Street was a hangout for the peace and justice movers in the valley, and Pax Christi meetings, were replete with prayer, spirited discussion, fellowship and the obligatory wine and beer. There were no strangers at Gildersleeve.

Despite having pain from her hip from the day I met her, I saw Maggie walk the Stations of the Cross in downtown Wilkes-Barre, protest, and plain keep moving. Her familiar blue Toyota, kept together by her peace and justice stickers, was well known around town.

Maggie was always outspoken and when she had an opinion, out it came. Many a priest and of course the bishop received letters from her, expressing her feeling or thoughts on an issue. The last letter she sent that I know, was a letter to the pastor of Holy Family Church. Their church bells, which played songs, were playing too long and it was disturbing the residents of Luzerne Towers. Father Cappeloni called her and thanked her, as he thought people might not like it, but no one had the courage to address it head on except Maggie.

Maggie loved her family, and would talk how much she liked to play cards with Fred and Joan on vacation. She always came back with a new drink they introduced her to, the last one I remember being an Appletini. She often talked of her nieces and nephews (she was Auntie Maggie) and her friends felt as though we knew them personally. Except there were so many, I couldn't keep them straight. She especially enjoyed visiting JoEllen in England.

Despite her love to serve others, in her heart, Maggie was an introvert and recharged by being by herself. She read a great deal, and journaled, and although she never said it, I suspected the time was also spent in prayer.

Maggie got me the job at the Housing Authority. She was retiring for the second time from a position and thought I would be good at it. She marched into the Director's Office and told him he should consider me. I was interviewed and got the job. Maggie agreed to come back to work at the Authority as support to maintenance. The maintenance guys were, well guys, but they respected Maggie tremendously. There was nothing they would not do for her.

With Maggie being at work again, we lunched almost every day. Perugino's in Luzerne was our favorite. Maggie loved to eat (rack of lamb especially) but was not that good a cook. Suffice to say, she was always ready to eat out and belonged to two birthday groups.

From money counter, Eucharistic Minister, member of the Social Concern Committee at St Nick's; working at the migrant worker camps; volunteering at a Catholic Worker house for a summer and considering starting on in WB; helping start the Peace Center; being an active Mercy Associate; working with Barb in the furniture bank; volunteering at McCauley House; to her last volunteer stints in Mich, Maggie could not help but live her faith by being the hands and feet and heart of the Jesus she loved.

Maggie told me over ten years ago that she was not afraid to die, that she was looking forward to seeing God. Jo Ellen told me that when she refused treatment for her leukemia, she was calm. That calmness, she told me, helped them stay calm. I know that Maggie was ready to go.

Maggie was a dear and loving friend to me, a unique woman, a true disciple of Jesus.

Rose Yarmel

I first met Maggie over twenty years ago when I was having group meetings for young people with AIDS and their families.
This was a time of fear for the unknown but Maggie was one of the first to show up as a "Buddy" for these young people to help. Practically all died within a short period of time but Maggie was there for them and their families; fearless and loving.
James Durso

Hi Rod,
 
Bob and I returned home from Florida last night; however, I'm just seeing this email now.
I know that I was there with all of you since you were there! 
Maggie's life was a testament to her caring spirit and selfless service.
She will be very missed in our community!
 
Thanks for letting me know...Ann Marie

Dear Friends of the Peace and Justice Center:

One of the founding members of our Peace and Justice Center, Marguerite Ritz, Maggie, has gone Home. 

Maggie, one of our true guiding spirits, passed on Sunday, February 07, 2010, in Livonia, Michigan.

Sing out in Praise and Thanksgiving for a life well lived!

Maggie was a live long member of the Saint Nicholas Church community.  She attended school at St Nicholas and graduated from Saint Nicholas High School.

Maggie is well loved and remembered by her friends at Melody Shoe Company in Wilkes-Barre and the office of the Luzerne County Housing Authority.

She devoted her time and considerable gifts to a life long commitment to ministry and volunteering.  A few of the many organizations that continue to benefit from her generosity are The Peace and Justice Center, Catherine McAuley House, St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen, St. Mary's Mercy Hospital, and the Red Cross. She is a well known and loved Mercy Associate of the Sisters of Mercy, and Maggie served on the board of directors of Catholic Social Services, and, together with her good friend, Fr. John Dear (author of A PERSISTENT PEACE), SJ, was a co-founder of our regional Pax Christi.  Maggie also worked fervently for Mercy Connections.

Celebration of Marguerite’s Life, 83 years dedicated to hope, mercy, peace and justice, was held on Saturday, February 13, 2010, at 9:00 AM, McLaughlin's Family Funeral Service, 142 South Washington Street in Wilkes-Barre with Funeral Mass at 9:30 AM in Church of Saint Nicholas. Interment was at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Hanover Township.

Visitation were held Friday, February 12, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. 

Memorial donations are preferred and may be made to:
 The Peace and Justice Center, 63 North Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701;
St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen, 49 East Jackson Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701;
Sisters of Mercy Ministry Fund, PO Box 369, Dallas, PA 18612;
 Angela Hospice, 14100 Newburgh Road, Livonia, MI 48154

May she rest in peace,

The Peace and Justice Center
rod