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Photo from 1979 when she returned to Southern France on a trip with her husband.. |
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Aunt Isabel
November 19, 1914--June 24, 2004
Childhood
Isabel was born on November 19, 1914 on a farm in Massachusetts.
Isabel's father, who worked in a factory next to a mill pond, lost his life attempting to rescue a 12 year old boy who had fallen in and was drowning. Isabel was 12 at the time. Her family was awarded the Carnegie Hero Fund Foundation Award, giving her mother a stipend she depended on to raise and educate her family.
Off to College
She attended Skidmore College [Troy, New York] with a major in nursing, class of 1935. After a year on the staff of a tuberculosis sanatorium, she enrolled in Schauffler College (Cleveland) in social work, and received a BS in social work in 1938.
Becomes a Quaker
She was powerfully influenced by her experience in Quaker peace work during the summer of 1938, when she volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Student Peace Service, a program of community peace education. She was part of a team of five who contacted churches and community groups in Beaver Falls, Pa. to initiate peace education activities for the community. This activity confirmed her commitment to pacifism, set a model for how she has conducted her lifetime of service and volunteer effort, and brought her into her first contact with the Religious Society of Friends. She became a member of Cleveland Friends Meeting (the term for the Quaker religious body) in 1939.
Service abroad from 1939--1946
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Photo from 1979 when she returned to Southern France on a trip with her husband.. |
Marriage and Family
In 1946, Isabel finished her work in Yugoslavia and was contemplating a move to China.
While home in Boston, she called an old friend, Bill, a naturalist whom she had met years before while attending college in Cleveland.
Bill, who had just experienced the death of his first wife, still remembers the beginning of the courtship.
"It was in Boston. We saw King Henry V, then had doughnuts and coffee,
All of a sudden, a light bulb went off in my head, and I said, ‘This is the gal I’m going to marry,’ ...
and I did. That was early September and by November, we were married. Needless to say, China missed out."
Isabel and Bill settled down and raised three children.
Poor People's Campaign in 1968
After a civil rights demonstration in 1968, a group of Quakers joined members of the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington.
When police began arresting only members of the PPC, Isabel and others from the Friends group began chanting that the two groups were together. In the end, 35 of the 150 members of the Friends group were arrested for disorderly conduct.
In an article she wrote in 2001, Isabel detailed the event, writing that when she made the trip, she had been prepared for some jail time.
No one had any idea how long we might be held. I had brought a table cloth I was crocheting, and thought at least I would get a lot done on it.
she wrote. “But. no. The crochet hook was confiscated cause it was potentially weapon.”
Michigan in 1980--2002
Isabel was active in leadership roles in a number of faith based organizations in Michigan from 1980, when she and her husband, Bill, moved there from Cleveland.
In 2002, Isabel was nominated for the Governor George Romney Lifetime Achievement Award.
At age 89.
Isabel died June 24, 2004 at the age of 89 after a decade-long battle with cancer.
She is survived by her husband, Bill and their three children.
July 2004, in remembrance of his wife, Bill wrote this:
"Let Your Life Speak".
These words define Isabel’s years on this Earth. She was an inspiration to all within her sphere of influence. She died five months short of being ninety — she had a full and productive life. She believed in "informed (she did her homework!), spirit-led action" against forces that adversely affected humankind —war, lack of justice and equity, poverty, and a deteriorating environment....
She held responsible volunteer positions with the Quaker lobbying and educational organization, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), and served four years as General Secretary with Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (now Quaker Environmental Witness, QEW). She had great concern for others, but little for herself. I’ve received many heart-warming letters and spoken comments that attest to her influence on all she knew and worked with.
Her service to humankind is well-documented in the resume that highlighted her seven decades of service and caring. This resume... was submitted with her 2002 nomination for the State of Michigan’s former Governor George Romney Lifetime Achievement Award. She was one of the five finalists.
As a Quaker, she recognized the seed of Christ — a seed to be nourished — in everyone. She led a quiet, calm, God-centered life that gave her confidence in all things and in problems that she helped others face.
Her ever-loving husband,
Bill
Sources:
The resume submitted to the State of Michigan to nominate Isabel for the Governor George Romney Lifetime Achievement Award
The obituary written July 29, 2004 in the Chelsea Standard/ The Dextereader
This website is a family affair and always a work in
progress.
We welcome additional input from Isabel's family and friends.
email:
barjwhit@cox.net
