Peace Club reunites on campus after nearly 50 years

October 28, 2015

Photo: The Peace Study club is photographed for the Dec. 7, 1967, issue of the Royal Purple newspaper.

In the late 1950s, a number of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students and a few professors formed a study group to raise awareness of most vexing social issues of the day, including civil rights and the Vietnam War.  

In the early days, members of the Peace Study Club held teach-ins and silent protests, standing in a row on campus, proffering leaflets and forming a silent vigil for peace. They invited fellow students, faculty and staff to engage in the events of the day and to consider — even for a moment as they rushed to their next class — asking questions and questioning authority.  

The notion enraged some: the ice was thrown, counter-protests were staged and faculty and administrators discussed and disagreed over whether the protests should even be allowed. One such vigil, on March 16, 1967, made headlines in the Royal Purple and regional media.       

"All we wanted was for people to think about it," said David Dwinell '67.  

On Saturday, June 20, 2015, Dwinell and other former club members came back to the UW-Whitewater campus to revisit the scene of the vigils, to reconnect with one another and to reflect on their lives then and their paths since.   They came from points across the country, at the tail end of careers unusually rich in terminal degrees and in helping others.  

Jim Kroll '68, the first person in the state of Wisconsin to be granted conscientious objector status under the United States v. Seeger decision, was the president of the Peace Study Club for a time. After graduation, Kroll went on to become a guidance counselor, educator and principal, start four international baccalaureate programs, receive his Ph.D., and become president of the Wisconsin Counselors Association. As guidance director at Milwaukee's Rufus King High School from 1989 to 2001, Kroll mentored scores of young students to Ivy League schools and illustrious careers and every year brought busloads of first-generation college prospects to introduce them to the UW-Whitewater campus.  

Kroll was also one of the ringleaders who got members of the former club back to campus for the June event, which included an oral storytelling session with Chancellor Emeritus Gaylon Greenhill and Bry Wyman, the son of Walker Wyman, who was president of Wisconsin State University-Whitewater during the years the club was active. In all, eight former club members came back, among them an Episcopalian priest and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.  

Photo: Peace Study Club members revisiting campus in June 2015. From left: Dave Dwinell, Kraig Schwartz, Jim Kroll, Sherri Marcou Watts, Tom Watts, Penelope Muehl Warren, Paul Wojcik and Jeff DeBuhr.

"We had great faculty on campus who started to mentor us," said Kraig Schwartz, who graduated in 1967 went on to earn his Ph.D. and teach history and political science. "Veterans like Bill Reichart, who was a World War II tank commander and a pacifist. Jim and I started going to conferences to learn more."  

When Schwartz came back to campus in 1970 and 1971 to teach, he said, "by then, the tide had turned and the majority of the student body was against the war and out protesting and marching."  

Tom Watts '69, a former Royal Purple reporter and Peace Study Club member, went on to work at the Milwaukee Sentinel, writing an article about his former campus when Old Main burned down in 1970, and become part of a reporting team at The Kansas City Star that won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting of skywalk collapse at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri in 1981, killing 114 and injuring 216. Today Watts describes the "undiminished intensity" he feels when he thinks of his days on campus.    

"Kennedy inspired us to feel like we could make things better," said Watts, referring to the former president. "I was not afraid to write and have people see what I thought."  

Other former club members came as well. Penelope Muehl Warren '69, a former editor in chief of the Royal Purple, went on earn a Ph.D. and become a counselor and Episcopal priest. Sherri Marcou Watts '70 is a retired teacher and clothing executive. Jeffrey DeBuhr '67 went on to earn an M.A. and teach humanities.  

On that Saturday in June, the group lingered at the site of the 1967 silent vigil, playfully bickering over who had stood where and other details of the day.  

"Change comes from people like us doing things," said Schwartz. "We're the actors of historic change."     

More from the Jefferson County Daily Union: http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_5b74ae10-18e0-11e5-b741-43ff1e2c6599.html