A committed Quaker activist known globally for his engagement in nonviolent action campaigns and antiwar activities, George Willoughby of Deptford, N.J., died at home on January 5 at age 95.
George earned a PhD in political science from the University of Iowa in 1939. He then met Lillian Pemberton, and they married a year later. They both worked at the Scattergood Resettlement hostel in Des Moines, home to Eastern European refugees. In 1943, George helped resettle Japanese-Americans released from internment camps. He joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1944 and declared conscientious objector status. He then worked at a Civilian Public Service Camp.
For eight years, he worked for the Des Moines office of the American Friends Service Committee, covering six states. By 1954, the family included four children: Sharon, Sally, Anita, and Alan. They moved to Deptford, N.J., where George took the job of director of the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors in Philadelphia.
In 1958, George was one of four crewmen who attempted to sail the boat Golden Rule from Los Angeles to the southern Pacific Ocean where the U.S. government was testing nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. The campaign ultimately led to the banning of U.S. atmosphere atomic testing. Two years later, he helped organize the anti-nuclear-testing San Francisco to Moscow March and walked from Poland to Moscow. His third march, from New Delhi to Peking, focused on a border clash between Indians and Chinese. Although the marchers were not allowed to enter China, they marched through many Indian villages, making friends.
George and others created the M. L. King, Jr., School of Social Change, a graduate school on the campus of Crozer Seminary west of Chester, Pa. From its founding in 1966 until 1971, it offered a master’s degree in social change and featured courses in community organizing, theory of nonviolence, practical skills, urban studies, and field work.
In 1966, George and other radical Quakers formed A Quaker Action Group. The organization’s primary purpose was to use nonviolent action campaigns to shorten the Vietnam War. Its first act was to send a small boat, Phoenix, to North Vietnam with medical supplies, indicating that they did not recognize the Vietnamese as enemies. The second protest was reading the names of American war fatalities on the Capitol steps in Washington. The demonstration was duplicated in many places around the country and drew attention to the fact that the war continued unabated.
Recognizing that a successful approach to nonviolent social change needed many components, George and his wife and others founded the Life Center community in 1971 in West Philadelphia. Over the next 16 years, members carried out political analysis, nonviolence training, work on liberation from sexism and racism, campaigns and demonstrations, and community life. Numerous collectives were formed to carry out work. One was the New Society Press, which still publishes. At one time, the community had 20 houses and over 100 members. The community was part of a national network of collectives called Movement for a New Society.
For 45 years, George traveled to India many times to initiate and strengthen ties with nonviolent initiatives and training programs. A few times, Lillian traveled with him.
In 1994, the Willoughbys created the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust, currently about 45 acres of woods, meadows, and wetlands. Located in densely populated Deptford, the trust reminds people of the need to allow land to remain natural and undeveloped.
George was deeply loved for his constant concern for friends undergoing difficult times. He was known for his playful teasing, wit, and irascibility. He was deeply respected by movement activists for his unrelenting commitment to create a nonviolent world. About his movement work, he said, “Success is not the goal; it’s to make a witness.”
He is survived by four children, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, and three granddaughters.
Donations can be made to the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust, c/o Susan Denton-Rice, 35 San Diego Drive, Magnolia, NJ 08049.
—Lynne Shivers
