Bud (Warren) Day
VFP member Bud (Warren) Day, died in Flagstaff, AZ on Dec. 17, 2003. Bud was an extremely active and tireless worker for peace and justice as his bio below attests:
BUD DAY (Warren J.)
1927-2003
LIVING AND WORKING IN OTHER CULTURES
Angola - 1991
Bangladesh – 1972,1974, 1975, 1985, 2000
India – 1951-61, 1969-70, 1972, 1974,1975, 1985, 1995, 2000.
Mozambique – 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992.
Navajo Nation – 1950
Puerto Rico – 1949
Swaziland – 1982, 1984, 1988, 2000
Tanzania – 1978-80, 1991, 1992.
Zimbabwe – 1980, 1981, 1984-86, 1988, 1991, 1992094, 1995, 1998, 2000-01
ACTIVIST ORGANIZING (only major ones)
Diversity – Anti-Racism
1961- US Civil Rights Movement, active in integrating local facilities, e.g. Southern Illinois
1980-1994, Los Angeles, always linked anti-apartheid and Central American struggles to similar conditions prevailing in South Central and East Los Angeles. Examples: police abuse, racial profiling, poverty, immigration rights. Drugs in LA directly linked to US government drug-running to finance contras in Central America – worked on this link long before exposure of Iran-Contra scandal.
National Liberation
1971-72 Bangladesh, Co-Coordinator of Airlift of Understanding, Emergency Relief Fund - led delegation of 70 Americans from 35 states to meet with people of Bangladesh to demonstrate solidarity in opposition to US foreign policy (Nixon/Kissinger) which supported Pakistan. Three million Bangladeshi died from Pakistani atrocities.
1970-94, Southern Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Zumbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Co-founder of the Southern African Liberation Committee at Michigan State University (1970), which supported students and the liberation struggles in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. From this legacy, MSU was the first US university to divest from US corporations doing busines (profiting from) apartheid South Africa.
Founder, Southern Africa Resource Project, Los Angeles (1980-1994) – Provided materials for public education and direct support for the liberation struggles, including opposing apartheid athletes in the Los Angeles Olympics (1984 – Zola Budd vs. Mary Decker), successful campaign for Los Angles City Council to divest (ineligible for city contracts) from US corporations in South Africa; worked with Artists Against Aprtheid (Hollywood stars who spoke out, e.g. Harry Belafonte), banl campaign to encourage citizens not to bank with those profiting from apartheid (e.g. Bank of America) and many, many more….
1980-1990 – Central America – worked with Central American organizations in Los Angeles to end US destabilization of Nicaragua and El Salavador in order to retain military dictatorships in Honduras and Guatemala.
Anti-War –-- Anti-Militarism
1965-75, Vietnam
1972, Chairperson, Committee on the City and the Vietnam War, City of East Lansing, Michigan
1973-76, Director, Peace Education Center, East Lansing
1976-78, Peace Education Secretary, American Friends Service Committee
1980-88, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Grenada
1991, Iraq
1996, Peace and Justice Network, Founder, Northern Arizona
1996-2000, Campaign to Ban Land Mines – Flagstaff City Council and Coconino County Supervisors passed resolutions (1998) in support of banning land mines, before the international campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize.
1997-2000, Child Soldiers – Public education about international treaty and opposed Flagstaff Paint Ball facility (it closed).
2000-2003, Justice and Peace Coalition, co-convener, Flagstaff.
2001, Aghanistan
2003, Iraq
Bud resisted U.S. militarism within the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi, the Black Panthers, and Nelson Mandela. He was a founding member of Veterans for Peace at Michigan State University, East Lansing, in the 1970's and initiated the Northern Arizona branch of the national Veterans for Peace (NA-VFP) in Flagstaff in 2002, which he presided over until shortly before his death.
Preventive (not curative) Health Care
1951-2003, India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola, Michigan, California, Arizona – these are places were Bud was directly involved over many years, on the ground (really below the ground—latrines and water supply).
His commitment was to provide water, sanitation and health care to “under-served areas” at home and abroad---as he would often state, "to put medical doctors out of work,” for 70% of diseases in warm climates are water-related. Issues included sanitation, sufficient (not even clean) water, free rural primary health care clinics (eradicated by US policy expressed overseas by the World Bank), free mother-child (under-5s) health care (implemented in South Africa by Nelson Mandela’s executive order).
In Arizona, his commitment extended to serving on the Boards of the Arizona Rural Health Association and AHEC, Arizona Health Education Commission. He also worked for the campaign to fluoridate Flagstaff water, expressly because the poor cannot afford oral treatments for their
children.
EDUCATION
1948, B.S., Civil Engineering, High Honors, University of Illinois
1951, M.Divinity, Union Theological Seminary (ordained Presbyterian Church, USA)
1951, Fulbright Scholarship, Engineering, Calcutta, India
1955, Certificate, Hindustani, Allahabad, India
1957, M.S., Sanitary (Environmental) Engineering, University of Illinois
1961, M. A., Counseling/Guidance, University of Illinois
1969, Sabbatical, Allahabad, India – Mahatma Gandhi Birth Centenary
MILITARY SERVICE
1944-Jan 1948, Navy ROTC
Bud enlisted at 17 because his Dad wanted him to and he always encouraged young people, when counselling or lecturing as a C.O., to think for themselves. During the Vietnam war, he was an officially designated and trained Conscientious Objector counselor.
May 1950, Honorable Discharge, Ensign (Civil Engineering).
Medals: Victory Medal, American Area Campaign Medal
Early 1950s, Conscientious Objector (CO) – status declared
1970-78, CO counselor – Michigan, Illinois, California
FORMAL EMPLOYMENT
1949, Puerto Rico, sanitary engineering consultant
1950, Ganado, Navajo Nation, assistant pastor
1951, Calcutta, India – Village sanitation, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health
1952-61, Allahabad, India – various university student work and village sanitation projects
1961-62, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale – campus minister
1964-75, Michigan State University - campus minister, United Ministries (ecumenical)
1972, Bangladesh – Director, International Voluntary Services
1976-78, Chicago and Pasadena, - Peace Education Secretary, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – Disarmament and Peace Conversion
1978-80, Tanzania – Sr. Lecturer, Community Health, University of Dar es Salaam Medical School
1979, Tanzania, Rufiji River Basin Development – WHO consultant
1980-82, Los Angeles – Community Colleges of Los Angeles County, campus minister
1981, Zimbabwe – WHO consultant – National Water Plan
1982, Swaziland – WHO consultant - cholera prevention
1984-86, Zimbabwe – Director, Oxfam America
1987-91, Los Angeles, Lecturer, Environmental Health Sciences, Public Health, UCLA
1991, Angola – WHO consultant - latrines in war-torn areas
1992-93, Zimbabwe – Director, Southern Africa region, International Voluntary Services
1994, Southern Africa – WHO – Cholera preparedness Zambia, Mozambique – NOMDA (Netherlands) – Health education
1995-2003, Flagstaff - Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, NAU Tucson - Instructor, Public Health, University of Arizona
Zimbabwe – Sr. Lecturer, Public Health, University of Zimbabwe (1998, 2000-01
FAMILY
Sisters: Ruth Smutz, Mary Simmons
1951-1976, Wife, Jean Krieger (architect), Children: Mary Spencer, Phyllis Murray, Sushila Day, James Day, Grandchildren: Mike and Jeanie Spencer; Danika, Emma, Lillian, Loretta Murray; Jamie and Michele Day
1978-2003, Partner/Wife, Carol Thompson (professor, political economy), Daughter: Shari Peralta, Grandson: Robert Peralta,
Dogs: Tasha (Bindoo), Suki