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We to diabolical wars give no assent.

.. to mountains of brutal mars make no ascent.

We will to power speak our dissent

God's Spirit waters to His seas make descent.





JOHN LOONEY



There are rare teachers

of peace.. for the only

way to teach peace...

is to be peace



John is still

made of peace.







JOHN TOWNSEND LOONEY









WADSWORTH John Townsend Looney, 88, died Tuesday, May 17, 2005.



His life may be best summarized by the motto, "to see what love can do." John was a tireless, com mitted, and joyful educator, advocate and organizer for peace, non-violence, and justice, who was also a dedicat ed husband, loving father, and devoted friend. He and his work with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social action organization, and Peace GROWS were known and respected across Ohio and the nation. To him, love toward others was not sentimental or naive, but the most moral, ethi cal, and practical means toward personal fulfillment and fundamental social change. One of his common retorts was, "What good is faith if not put into practice?" Born in 1916 and raised in Cleveland Heights, John received degrees in me chanical engineering from the Case School of Applied Science and law from DePaul University. While working in Chicago, he attended his first Friends (Quaker) meeting and met his future wife, Adele. Shortly after their marriage, they traveled to Blue Mountain Lake in the Adiron dacks, a beautiful respite where, for the last 30 years, they annually vacationed with family and friends. His early career consisted of working in industry, including as an employee of Cleveland Pneumatic Tool, a plant engineer for Ohio Injector Co. in Wadsworth, and co-owner of Wadsworth Manufacturing. His respectful treat ment toward fellow workers and his own employees was com monplace. In the early `60s, his love of people found social jus tice outlets in scheduling and hosting AFSC speakers and peace caravans around Ohio, working on fair housing, church integration, racial justice train ing, and full funding for public education in Wadsworth and, with Adele, joining the Summit County Coalition for Peace. Stirred by son Mark's antiwar efforts and attendance at a massive demonstration against the Vietnam War, John sold his business and, in 1970, began working full time for AFSC out of his home. In 1973, John start ed an AFSC office in Akron as part of Humanity House, an incubator for start-up and local community groups, including the National Organization for Women, NAACP, UFW, Vegetarians, battered women's shelter, and others. He also helped found the Akron Friends Meeting. For 16 years, John directed the Northeast Ohio AFSC. Projects and cam paigns that he helped start and/or carry out included: stopping the B-1 bomber; ending the Vietnam war; beginning the Ohio Peace & Justice Calendar; organizing a radio program called Plug-In, carried by several Akron radio stations; organizing four joint Guns or Butter conferences in Akron, Cleve land, and Youngstown; and ending the nuclear arms race. He was president of the Ohio Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and served on the National Board. In this capacity, he traveled the state (often at record speed with his car filled with boxes of information and 3x5 note cards to gather names of new recruits) organizing more than 50 peace groups in all parts of the state, including rural Ohio. Some called him a modern-day Johnny Appleseed for peace and non-violence. Maybe his most lasting and prophetic social action was developing a curriculum called Al ternatives to Violence (ATV), a course on non-violent conflict resolution from the personal to international levels that blended his learning and experiences in non-violent conflict resolution with his knowledge of writing legal case studies and personal business acumen. The theoreti cal, historical, practical, and hands-on course and accompa nying book and workbook were held and distributed in schools, churches, and community set tings in Ohio, across the U.S., and in more than a dozen coun tries. The course was first sponsored by AFSC and later, upon his "retirement" from AFSC, under a new organization that he helped form, Peace GROWS (Grass Roots Outreach Works). In the current period of war, retribution, and cyclical vio lence, ATV remains both pro phetic and timely. John was the recipient of a number of awards for his work including the 1986 Albert Einstein Peace Award, the 1986 Bishop William M. Cosgrove Justice Award, and the 1998 Governor's Communi ty Peace Award. His accom plishments, however, may pale beside the type of person he was: humble, faithful, altruistic, affirming, understanding, gen tle, tenacious, humorous, optimistic, and loving. He lived his life as he wanted the world to be. For 61 years, Adele helped, encouraged, and critiqued.



Besides Adele, he leaves his daughter, Marcia (Joel) Hartman; son, Mark (Mary Anne Staniszewski); grandchildren, Katherine and Matthew Hartman.



A Quaker service reflecting on and celebrating his life will be held on Sunday, May 22, at 3 p.m., at the fellowship hall of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, 3300 Morewood Rd. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his name may be made to the American Friends Service Committee of Akron or the John T. Looney Internship Program, c/o the American Friends Service Committee of Akron, 513 W. Exchange St., Akron, Ohio 44302. (Hilliard & Mullaney, 330-334-1501.)

Published in the Akron Beacon Journal on 5/19/2005.



This beautiful and moving tribute above was written by Greg Coleridge.









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John Looney could be seen at age 89 standing in the cold at the Federal Building with peace activists whose network he built for 70 years. In May of 2005 he left for God.



The B1 Bomber was one of many campaigns he developed slide shows and media to fight. The slide show was distributed internationally.



His course on nonviolence, Peace Grows, with Alternatives to Violence as the companion text, has been used in at least 300 school curricula.



No one in that building nor in his family can recall his ever raising his voice. A committed mediator and facilitator of dialogue, he always breathed out the peace of his soul.  His wife Adele, also a peace activist all her life, survives him, as do his daughter Marcia, son Mark and their families.  



His friends have seen a picture of him as a little boy, cradling his pet Scottie dog in his arms, his own angelic hands clasped.  He will continue to work for peace, no longer limited by time or space or a human body.