A Cloud of Quaker Witnesses for the Peaceable Kingdom

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us".--Hebrews 12:1

I was sad to hear of the passing of Bobbi Kendig, a dear Friend I came to know through many visits to Marloma Long Beach meeting since arriving in California 30 years ago. Whenever I showed up in the pre-school where Marloma Friends met, Bobbi was always welcoming and friendly and full of love. She embodied the Quaker spirit of hospitality. She was deeply concerned about “the least of these.” Even though Marloma was a tiny meeting, she often took some marginalized group, such as a refugee family, under its care. She introduced me to Fred Newkirk, a remarkable Quaker pastor who started a half-way house for former inmates and did amazing work. Bobbi also ran a home for abused children and wrote a book about it called “Cedar House.”  I looked it up on Amazon and found that it relates to  this year’s annual session: “The theme of the book springs from a mind-set of inclusiveness--including clients in every step of the process related to them, enlisting their abilities to help each other as well as themselves, embracing community members in the search for answers, and providing channels for people at all levels to give and to grow.” 

A Friend told a story about her going to Kosovo to be a peacemaker. Some Serbian soldiers stopped her and pointed their guns at her, asking why she had come to their country. She spoke of her desire to reach out to traumatized families with such emotion that the soldiers pointed down their guns and asked if she would come to Serbia to do similar healing work. 

Bobbi, you were one of the most radically inclusive and loving people I’ve ever known. I will miss you and your smile, dear friend!

Bob Barns. Bob was one of the first activist Friends I met when I came to California in 1989. He regularly attended PYM annual sessions was passionate about Right Sharing and AVP. Not one to hide his light under a bushel, hwore a vest advertising his involvement with these organizations. He was also passionate about Latin American concerns and wrote a book called Nica Notes about his experiences in Nicaragua during the days of death squads.

I love this story from his Memorial Minute. “ In later years, during Meeting for Worship in Grass Valley Friends Meeting, Bob’s Australian girlfriend, Giri, detailed an experience he had in an AVP workshop in Folsom Prison. Bob  was confronted by a wretched, tearful, and mournful man who had been assigned the task of killing Bob when he was in Nicaragua. He even had Bob’s face in his rifle’s scope, but could not bring himself to do it. He said there was something in Bob’s face that would not allow him to carry out the assassination.” 

It turns out this man (named Bold Bear) was under the pay of the US government. (He was later paroled.) 

Bob was a compassionate, bodacious man of peace and a true Friend. He is also remembered for his kindness and sense of humor. I am very grateful for how he challenged me with his example of fearless faithfulness.

Henriette Groot. I got to know our beloved Dutch Friend Henrietta when I drove her back from annual session and stayed at her home. She was a very gracious host and I got to hear her amazing story of how she and her husband spent over a decade circling the globe in a sail boat. What a free spirit! When Jill and I visited her home, she showed us pictures of her travels and also the llamas in her backyard! She was a passionate environmentalist and a lover of beauty and nature. I am grateful for the example of her life lived fully and deeply and with integrity.

Tom King. I got to know Tom when I traveled with him to the Soviet Union on a work camp in the 1990s with a bunch of Quaker teens. Thee I learned that Tom was a very frugal friend. Because we were able to purchase items at Russian prices instead of inflated tourist prices, we were able to get huge bargains. Restaurant meals were only 25 cents. Tickets to the Bolshoi were $2. I felt super rich. When I got a haircut, the Russian barber charge me 10 kopecks, around 10 cents. I told this to Tom and he was indignant. He told me I was ripped off. He said I could have gotten the haircut for only 5 kopecks. I shocked him when I told him I gave the barber a $1 tip. (So generous of me!) Tom loved Quaker history and devoted many years of his life to writing the history of San Jose Friends. He was tireless in gathering data from original documents and eventually put together a meticulously researched 500-page tome, of which he was very proud. I am glad to have known Tom, who loved the Society of Friends and its complicated history in which he played a part.

Stephen Matchett.  It was shocking to learn of Stephen’s sudden death from a brain tumor: he seemed so full of life it was hard to believe he could die, much less pass so quickly. I got to know Stephen when I was editor of Friends Bulletin (now the Western Friend) and he served as clerk of the FB Board. He was an excellent clerk and I often stayed at his home in San Francisco where I got to know something of his life story. For example, at one point he was a lawyer defending clients on death row—a very frustrating but worthwhile task. He also led the Bible study at Yearly Meeting which had a big influence on my wife Jill and me. An Evangelical Christian, Jill loved the way that Stephen led Friendly Bible studies in an inclusive and non-dogmatic way and we brought this model to Orange Grove Meeting, where it has been highly successful. Stephen has visited us at our home in Pasadena several times, arriving by bike since he refused for reasons of conscience to ride in a private car. (He traveled only by public transportation and bike). Stephen was a man of great kindness and great integrity, with a disarming sense of humor. I am still grieving his passing. He will be sorely missed.

Laura Kohl. I got to know Laura and her husband when my wife Jill and I went to San Diego to check out the Golden Rule, a sail boat that the Quaker Albert Bigelow tried to sail into the forbidden nuclear test zone in the Pacific Ocean in 1958. (This voyage never reached its goal, but influenced Green Peace and other peace groups.) The Golden Rule was refurbished by Vets for Peace so it could be used to promote peace and ending nuclear weaponry. Laura and her husband were avid sailors and took us sailing on the Golden Rule through San Diego harbor with some Friends and Vets for Peace. Afterwards, we had dinner and swapped stories. She was such a fun person it was hard to believe she was once part of the Jonestown scene. She wrote a book about her experiences and went on speaking tours around the country. She was also very active in local political causes, standing up for immigrants and others. Laura became my Facebook friend and always liked or loved my postings relating to peace and social justice. I can’t help smiling when I think of her. She was a true Friend, a lover of peace and social justice, with a beautiful, loving heart.

La Jolla Monthly Meeting Memorial Minute

Laura Johnston Kohl

October 22, 1947-November 19, 2019

Laura Johnston Kohl was born on October 22, 1947 in Washington D.C. Her mother

was an activist, a writer and wrote a column for the Washington Post. She raised Laura

and her two older sisters as a single parent.

            Laura grew up as an activist in Washington, D.C., and watched many of her heroes

being assassinated in the 1960s. While she was in high school and college, John

Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and others

were killed.  That had a huge impact on her.  She attended college in Connecticut and

continued her commitment to work for change and to make a difference.  While

exercising her civil rights to protest peacefully, she was tear-gassed while protesting the

war in Vietnam.  After a brief marriage, a visit to Woodstock, and a stint working with the

Black Panthers, she moved to California to join her sister.

            Soon after that, she was introduced to Peoples Temple and spent the next nine years in

California and Guyana.  She was away from Jonestown on the day when 913 of her

friends and family died.  The next twenty years were spent recovering, and rebuilding

her life.  For the first ten years, she lived in Synanon, a residential community.  The

following ten years, with her husband, Ron Kohl and young son Raul, she began

rebuilding her life.  She earned her BA in philosophy/psychology, and then earned her

California Teaching Credential.  She also found some peace by becoming a Quaker. 

            She became a public speaker about Peoples Temple and was on the Speakers’ Bureau

of the Jonestown Institute.  She was interviewed locally, nationally, and internationally

on television, on radio, in newspapers, in documentaries, and for research papers.  She

wrote many articles about the details of life in Peoples Temple and her survival in the

annual Jonestown Report.  Laura was an annual speaker at the Communal Studies

Association Conference, and her scholarly work is published in their Communal

Societies Journal. She made frequent presentations at universities, libraries, book

stores, conferences, and on internet radio. She was interviewed on Ben Modo Live

television show, and appeared in several documentaries on different aspects of Peoples

Temple. Laura received a number of requests for interviews from all around the world

every week. In March 2010, she published her own book, JONESTOWN SURVIVOR:

An Insider’s Look. 

            Laura worked as a bilingual public school teacher and was nominated for “Teacher of the Year” by her middle school. She was chosen as "A Woman of the Year 2011-12" by the National Association for Professional Women. In October 2012, she was added to the Board of Directors of the Communal Studies Association. She was a member of Read Local San Diego, and Writers and Publishers of San Diego, as well as other

author's groups. In the last few years, after retiring from full-time public school teaching, she traveled extensively across the country from Hawaii to New York, and Seattle to Florida, speaking at universities about New Religions, survival, Peoples Temple &

Jonestown, psychology, cults, Critical Thinking, writing, and the decades of the 1960s

and 1970s – and the evolution of Peoples Temple during those twenty years. She also

taught OSHER classes around the country and spoke at Quaker Meetings around the

U.S. She was on the Advisory Committee of the California Historical Society's Peoples

Temple Archives.

            In San Diego Laura was active in many peace and justice activities with groups such as the Democratic Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, her teachers' union, and

especially events that promoted racial understanding and justice for migrants. Laura

had been active in La Jolla Meeting for over 20 years. Her loving presence was felt

especially as she encouraged us to create a banner to take to events such as the Martin

Luther King and LGBTQ parades.  She had Quaker t-shirts printed for us to wear

routinely and especially at public gatherings.  We will miss her insistence on our being

active in the community.  She served on many committees, most of which were involved

in peace, social action and immigration issues. She was on the SCQM Peace

Committee for many years and was also very active in peace issues at Pacific Yearly

Meeting.

            Laura struggled with a debilitating cancer the last couple of years of her life but it didn’t stop her indomitable spirit. She remained active until her last days. Four days before

her death, Laura’s husband Ron hosted a celebration of life at her home at her request.

Over 130 people attended to say good-by. Laura will be remembered for her wide-open

heart, optimism, passion for justice, and incredible energy. Her passing leaves a hole in

the lives of her family, colleagues, and friends from all walks of life. Friends at La Jolla

Meeting will miss her deeply.

Memorial Minute Bob Barns

Besides a variety of occupations, Bob Barns, or Bodacious Bob as many came to know and love him, was a father, an activist, a teacher, a writer, and an inspiration. He was a social activist especially for issues regarding violence, peace, and environmental concerns. He was a man who tried hard to live his ideals. Many within the Alternatives to Violence Project circles praise his effervescence, his clarity, and his loving, joyful spirit.

            Robert Edward Barns was born in New York, New York, on May 21, 1926 to parents, Frederick Balston Barns and Virginia Elizabeth Kift Barns. Bob moved with the family to Philadelphia where his mother worked for the Ladies Home Journal. His next move was to California with his father. He lived in Morgan Hill with his grandparents who operated a prune orchard. Later he moved to the Burlingame area to live with his father and his second wife.

            Finishing high school at 17 he joined the Army and was in Germany when the atomic bomb fell and the war soon ended. The military attempt to teach him how to use a bayonet led him to decide war was futile and to become a lifelong pacifist. Bob studied at University of California at Berkeley, where he also came into contact with Quakers. He spent wonderful summers hiking and camping with a friend. They hiked from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite—taking on a section each year for three years. After completing his studies he taught in Davis, California and continued in his relationship with Friends in the Davis Friends Meeting.

            Bob married Dorene Mercer in 1953. In 1954, Bob and Dorene, before they had children, participated in an AFSC work project. The project was to build a school in the Seri Indian fishing village of Desemboque, Mexico. During his career, his various jobs included being a draftsman at a pump manufacturing company, running his own company, and working with volunteer organizations. During the Korean War he saw that his employer was doing more work on war equipment then he could deal with, so he quit and went back to Mexico to work with Quakers on the water supply for a small village. Later he worked with them  on similar projects in northern Mexico. The work was very hard—laying pipes and blasting rocks. There was no

electricity in the area and water had to be carried about two miles, but Bob loved the people and several called him God with a beard. Bob and Dorene separated in 1979.

            One of Bob’s publications was Nica Notes: A Collection of Newsletters from a Peace Activist’s Stay in Nicaragua. It documented many of his experiences while living in war-torn Nicaragua in 1986. He used his life to accompany those who were in danger of being killed, as the presence of a foreigner abated some risk.

            In later years, during Meeting for Worship in Grass Valley Friends Meeting, Bob’s Australian girlfriend, Giri, detailed an experience he had in an AVP workshop in Folsom Prison. Bob  was confronted by a wretched, tearful, and mournful man who had been assigned the task of killing Bob when he was in Nicaragua. He even had Bob’s face in his rifle’s scope, but could not bring himself to do it. He said there was something in Bob’s face that would not allow him to carry out the assassination.

            Perhaps Bob’s two most impactful ministries were his dedication to the good within all people and his concern for the environment. Bob was a disciple of the Alternative to Violence Project (AVP). Bob led AVP workshops in prisons and out of prisons around the world, possibly on 6 continents. Bodacious Bob, as he was better known approached all people he met with civility, love, respect, and good humor. This same caring for all people led to the advice he gave Amanda and Nick Wilcox. Amanda said, My personal memory is that Bob was a steadfast supporter of our efforts to prevent gun violence and our most loyal Brady Chapter member. Our first early action was to stop gun shows in Nevada County. Bob was worried about the strong feelings and possible acrimony that the issue could cause

 and early on, advised Nick and me to always seek to understand the needs of those who disagreed with us. It was the best advice we ever received. In the years since, we have had strong policy disagreements but have never had a negative or disrespectful interaction with our opponents. I attribute this to Bob’s advice.

            Bob’s sense of right use of the world’s resources led to a lifelong involvement, including spending time on the national board of Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR). When Bob moved to Nevada City, he built his own home largely from recycled materials and lived for many years as a neighbor of the John Woolman School without a personal vehicle.

            As an attender and then a member of Grass Valley Friends Meeting, Bob served in a number of capacities and continuously championed many important causes. He volunteered with organizations including Witness for Peace, Alternatives to Violence, and Right Sharing of World Resources. At one point he served as Treasurer of the Meeting, but stepped down because of all the travel he engaged in, mostly due to his work for AVP and Right Sharing of World Resources. He also was instrumental in the success of the Stamp Project, collecting used and new stamps from around the world to raise money for RSWR. Many times our Business Meeting heard Bob ask,”Is this (spending) the best way for us to use the world’s

resources?”

            Bob lived the last few years of his life in Beaverton, Oregon, near his son Chris and his wife Caroline. During that time he was able to visit with most of his family. Bob passed away peacefully at home on July 16, 2019.

Thomas Million King

October 27, 1940 to September 9, 2019

Tom King was born on October 27, 1940 in Colusa, California to Mr. William Byron King and Mrs. Rose Elizabeth Standish King. He was the younger brother of Charles Standish King of San Bruno, California. Tom attended Yuba College in Marysville, California, then he transferred to University of California, in Berkeley. After his graduation, he served for two years in the US Army. Following the service, he entered the teaching profession. It was while teaching in Novato, California that he met his first wife; they were married for three years.

Tom started attending San Jose Friends Meeting in 1972, joining as a member of the Meeting in 1975. He was an active member, serving on the Library Committee, the Property Committee, and as recording clerk. In the mid 1980’s, Tom played an important

role in preserving the archival records of the Meeting, which resulted in the transfer of all the pre-1885 business meeting minutes, as well as Meeting’s oldest and most valuable papers and books to the Quaker Collection of Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

Tom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the mid 1990’s. After researching available treatment options, he entered a two-year drug program for Parkinson’s Disease at the National Institute of Health. He used the Traveling Friends Directory for securing temporary housing. One of the hosts was a Quaker named Amy Southwick, whom he married in 2001. Tom’s frequent visits to D.C. gave him opportunities to use the National Archives and the Library of Congress for pursuing his research. After Amy retired, the couple lived in Tom’s historic home in the Burbank area of San Jose. In 2003, they took up residence in a home in Santa Rosa located close to Friends House. Tom attended Quaker meetings in the Santa Rosa area while he maintained his membership in San Jose Friends Meeting. After he and Amy divorced in 2012, Tom moved back to his home in San Jose.

Tom was a man of many interests, among them genealogy, travel, the history of San Jose, and the history of Quakers. He authored several historical articles, and in 2012, he published his first book, “History of San Jose Quakers, West Coast Friends.” At the time of his death, he was working on a sequel.

Tom was a man who held strong opinions and was not easily dissuaded. His independence and tenacity sustained him through years of physical challenges. One of the major surgeries Tom had was a deep brain stimulator implantation, around 2005, which helped relieve some of his Parkinson’s symptoms. Despite his many physical challenges, Tom refused to let anything prevent him from living life on his terms. He attended meeting for worship nearly every Sunday -- taking two buses to get there – and participated in the life of the meeting with enthusiasm. His indomitable spirit and persistence in pursuing his goals were inspirational and admired by those who knew him.

It was Tom’s wish that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Habitat for Humanity.