Memorials

WILPF US  remembers former board members, Ethel M. Jensen and Georgia Pinkel..

Ethel M. Jensen, 1921-2015

Longtime WILPF peace activist Ethel M. Jensen died on November 5, 2015. Ethel's life included an undergraduate education at Ohio State University, wartime marriage to Joe in 1944, birthing and raising four children, and redefining herself in mid-life starting with an MA in Education from Villanova University in 1973. But the predominant themes in her life were her commitment to peace, civil liberties, and to the rights and dignity of women. In fact, she would argue that the ideals of peace and civil liberties are inextricably bound to those of feminism.

Ethel first became active in WILPF in Dayton, Ohio, in the mid-1950s. When the family moved to Pennsylvania in 1962, she was eager to locate the local WILPF branch, certain that it would be through WILPF that she would find her new closest friends. She was right. At her first meeting in Norristown, she met (among others) long-time WILPF president Kay Camp. For the next forty years Kay and Ethel would be bound at the hip. Ethel and Kay traveled to the Soviet Union in 1968, in an effort to promote  peace by building international bridges of friendship among women.

Ethel served on the WILPF board of directors, and in 1989 was the program planning chair of the national WILPF conference in Madison, Wisconsin. It was during these years that Ethel attended Earlham College as both visiting professor and student, earning a certificate in Peace Studies. The Earlham experience expanded Ethel's understanding of the relationship between feminism and peace.

After husband Joe's retirement from the ministry, Ethel and Joe embarked on a new life chapter, living and working on campus at five different colleges around the country. At Linfield College, Ethel organized a four-day international conference, “Now is the Time: Finding Peace in the Nuclear Age,” assembling multiple recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ethel and Joe eventually ended up at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. It was there that they felt the most at home and decided to finally “retire”. In 2005, in the face of advanced age and Joe's failing health, they moved to a retirement community in Hanover, PA. Joe died five years later.

Ethel was an exceptional listener and had a bottomless capacity for empathy. Many people over many decades have considered her to be their best friend. But none were more important to Ethel than her friends in WILPF. In her own words, WILPF was “my life-line.”

A memorial service is to be held at 11:00 AM on June 11, 2016, at the Second Presbyterian Church at 528 Garland Drive, Carlisle, PA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to WILPF, 11 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116.
 

Georgia Lee (Jackson) Pinkel, 1942-2016

Georgia Pinkel served on the board of WILPF US as program chair and wrote the Branches column for Peace & Freedom magazine for many years. She attended the 1995 Beijing International Women’s Conference.  She sang with the Raging Grannies and enjoyed participating in the Grannies’ Unconventions.

She was president of the congregation and a member of the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver, WA, where a memorial service took place on February 27. She is survived by two sons, a grandson and a great-granddaughter.

Georgia was born in Chicago IL and graduated from Knox College in Galesburg with a degree in education. She later studied at the University of Louisville KY (computer science) and Clark College (women’s studies).