International House Berkeley

right across the Bay in San Francisco. High-level diplomats from the U.N. came and spoke at I-House, adding to the atmosphere of optimism and possibility. We thought the world was going to change. Shortly after leaving I-House in 1948, Bob focused his efforts on bringing Pacifica radio station KPFA into being. The prime mover behind KPFA was Lew Hill, but there were about ten people who made the station possible, and Bob was one of them. The whole idea of listener-sponsored radio and television started with KPFA. They started out with no money, so Bob proposed, "Well, maybe we could get listeners to pay something." Yes, there were people in I-House who supported it, like Elliott Castello, and I remember myself working on plastering the walls at 2207 Shattuck Avenue before the station went on the air on April 15, 1949. Those were busy times. We were married later that year. Bob was Public Affairs Director at KPFA for a number of years. I became a Quaker soon after we left I-House, and Bob said, "Don't leave me out of this!" So he became a Quaker too. Over many years and several moves, we deepened and broadened our network of Friends throughout the U.S. and abroad. During his experience in the Navy, Bob had seen clearly that war was not the way to solve the world's problems. The Quakers provided a conduit for action on behalf of peace in the world. For many years we were deeply involved with the American Friends Service Committee where I served on the Personnel Committee in San Francisco and Bob was the core of its Peace Committee. Then there was the Lobby for Peace, which Bob founded to counter the influence of the Pentagon. He said, "If there are fifty lobbyists from the Pentagon, there have to be fifty lobbyists for peace." Again, friends from I-House were supportive. Abbas Gheselyayogh, known as Kessel, had a big influence on this and Bob's later work. Our time at International House in the 1940's, what is now referred to as "The Golden Age," continued to influence how we lived our later lives. We stayed in touch with many of our I-House friends and our experience living there truly did start us in the direction of community and social action. Edited by Karla Herndon Feb, 2016 Taken from an interview by Tonya Staros on September 7, 2010. Edited by Karla Herndon, Febuary 2016. 103

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