Dear, Ruth Stamm

Writer, journalist, peace activist, Gray Panther, and lifelong social justice Radical, Ruth Stamm Dear died March 31, 2017, peacefully, of old age at 103. Ruth had been living at Bethesda Rehab Center in Chicago. Ruth was married to steel worker and union organizer George Dear ( d. 1985). She was jailed for her protest against nuclear proliferation at Arlington Heights military base in 1987, at age 73.

Ruth was born in 1914 in New York City to immigrants Anna and Simon Stamm. Ruth became a Gandhi pacifist first advocating for peace with one- day strikes based on the Oxford Peace Pledge. Her civil rights activism began in the 1940s in Hyde Park; in the 1950s she was active in Circle Pines Center in Michigan and the Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE).

She joined Women Strike for Peace, and other peace organizations. In 1963 she traveled to the USSR for an international peace meeting with North Vietnamese women. Ruth joined the Oak Park chapter of the War Resisters League, helped organize Metro West Peace Center and the annual Hiroshima Day Observances. She participated in the Chicago Pledge of Resistance opposing U. S. intervention in Central America.

Ruth published numerous articles in the Nonviolent Activist, WIN Magazine and a memoir, You Can’t Not Do It, in 2001. Her journals, publications and letters are collected at the Gannon Center, Loyola University Chicago.

Ruth leaves her niece, Karen Stamm, and many friends, her brother and other relatives having predeceased her.

A memorial celebration will be held May 7 at 3: 00 p. m., the Grove, 7757 Van Buren Street, Forest Park. Gifts in her honor may be sent to the Third Unitarian Church or the ACLU.