Stoltzfus, Gene (1940-2010)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Mar 22 p. 1, 7

Birth date: 1940

text of obituary:

CPT's founding director dies

Stoltzfus dedicated career to peace, human rights

By Celeste Kennel-Shank

Mennonite Weekly Review

CHICAGO — Gene Stoltzfus, founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams and an international human rights activist, died March 10. He was 70.

His heart stopped while he was riding his bicycle near his home in Fort Frances, Ont.

During his tenure as CPT director from 1988 to 2004, Stoltzfus helped establish an organization for the peace churches and other Christians with a vision that peacemakers ought to be willing to take risks to stop violence.

His 45-year career included years of service in Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as directing U.S.-based peacebuilding organizations. Stoltzfus traveled to numerous conflict zones and contributed to training hundreds of peacemakers.

In the early 2000s, he visited Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, listening to survivors of war and learning about the effects of armed conflict there.

Stoltzfus led CPT as it carried out international projects in places such such [sic] as Chiapas, Mexico, and Haiti, as well as work in U.S. cities, including Richmond, Va., and Washington.

Tears and laughter mingled as Stoltzfus' colleagues in the CPT office remembered him.

Kryss Chup, CPT training and publications coordinator, who worked with Stoltzfus for 27 years in three organizations, saw Stoltzfus as a visionary.

"Gene brought together a unique combination of that vision with profound grassroots experience," she said. "The vision had a comprehensive practicality about it as well."

Some CPT workers remember receiving phone calls from "God" with a deep voice on the other end asking them to consider taking part in a CPT project. They then realized it was Stoltzfus.

"It was one of Gene's humorous ways of connecting to the heart of people," Chupp said.

Stoltzfus modeled nonviolence in love of those who could be seen as enemies, Chupp said.

"I saw this over and over and over again when he was engaged with authority figures or those seen as the opponents, and he just broke through," she said.

Southeast Asia service

After graduating from Goshen (Ind.) College in 1962, Stoltzfus began his career in Vietnam from 1963 to 1967, working in education and community development as a conscientious objector with International Voluntary Services, a secular organization that received U.S. government funding.

Earl Martin, who served in Vienam with Mennonite Central committee beginning in 1966, recalled that Stoltzfus and a group of other IVS volunteers in leadership roles resigned as a statement against the Vietnam War, calling attention to its harm to Vietnamese civilians.

"They were real pioneers in raising a strong voice as to the effect of U.S. military presence in that country," martin said in a phone interview. "The Vietnam experience really did help Gene understand the nature of power and the ends to which a powerful nation will go to try to defend its perceived interests."