STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment
Remembering Peacemakers
Working
for world peace and the civil rights of all Americans:
Rudy
Potochnik 1916-2003
By INDIRA CLARK
On January 18th as many thousands of us marched in San Francisco against a new war, longtime peace activist Rudy Potochnik died. A fiery voice for peace, civil rights, and against the futility of war, Rudy is also remembered for his humor and very active life, physically and intellectually.
“1946 saw the end of World War II and the release of four conscientious objectors from Alternative Service with U.S. Forest Service,” Rudy wrote in an article “Wolverine partners build homes and world peace,” published last summer in Stanislaus Stepping Stones, the bimonthly journal of the McHenry Museum & Historical Society.
“The four, Gordon and Gale Nutson, Howard Ten Brink, and [I] opted to leave Michigan to take up residence in Modesto. We reminded ourselves we were from the Wolverine State with the selection of a name for our business, Wolverine Building Service. The shortage of housing for returning G.I.s led us to start a building program. We found a building supply company which was prefabricating wall panels. With lumber and hardware we could complete a small 700-square-house.” The original Wolverine house was moved to Tyson farm in Waterford in the 1960s where we still use it for storage.
At Rudy’s memorial service on February 8th, former Modesto city planner Bill Nichols forcefully recounted the Wolverine partners refusal to go along with the de facto segregation in Modesto. They also worked in opposition to an initiative permitting sellers of single family, duplex, and triplex housing to exclude buyers based on race. The initiative passed in this county and statewide. The California Supreme Court subsequently overruled the vote as unconstitutional
“As a Quaker, I participated in a prison-visitation program at Vocational Institute for eight years” in the 1950s and ‘60s, Rudy remembered. He was active in protesting the buildup of nuclear weapons and the above ground testing of nuclear weapons. In 1957 Rudy and others from Stanislaus County “were part of the first weapons test protest on the Nevada desert. We helped build a trimarian to sail into the nuclear weapons test area in the Pacific to protest testing there.”
Don Lundberg remembers Rudy as “the fiery speaker to a full auditorium of Modesto Junior College students. At the end of [his] anti-war speech, the students gave [Rudy] a standing ovation. . . the only speaker to receive a standing ovation during my tenure at the college.” Rudy counseled draft-age young men at Modesto Peace/Life Center, and faithfully supported the center for over 30 years along with many other organizations concerned with peace and the environment.
Rudy concluded his Stepping Stones article, “We conscientious objectors to war found ways to build peace along with building homes. Many Modestans have told us the Wolverines were unique because our partnership lasted close to four decades and we earned a reputation as honest, conscientious businessmen who worked tirelessly to build a better community and, thus, a better world. . .We worked in the long struggle for civil rights for all Americans.”
--Excerpts from “Wolverine partners build homes and world peace,” by Rudy Potochnik, from Stanislaus Stepping Stones, July/August 2002, reprinted with permission of June Potochnik. Stanislaus Stepping Stones, 1402 I Street, Modesto 95354-1402.
Rudy:
Being our friend
By GENE PALSGROVE
Our friend, my friend, Rudy
Potochnik, endured a long bout with Parkinson’s disease and complications
which led to his death on January 18, 2003. As I watched him struggle to find
and share his thoughts and express them, I found myself flooded with the many
ways our lives touched. How my life has been enriched by our friendship.
Our paths converged in
October, 1944, at CPS Camp Wellston, Michigan. There, I entered upon an informal
university education among the most diverse group of men imaginable -
politically, religious orientation, reasons for opposing the war, social values,
education - you name it. Rudy was a stimulating part of this mix.
From the time of our
introduction, I knew this free-thinker was a carbon copy of no one. His
socialist family background exposed me to ideas from which I had been sheltered.
He forcefully articulated his position in endless camper discussions on every
topic under the sun and into the cosmos. He was one of several intellectuals
from the University of Michigan and, yes, at first, I felt a bit intimidated!
Rudy and I cut firewood on
opposite ends of a cross-cut saw in sub-zero weather, knee deep snow. I see him
on snow shoes racing across frozen Lake Chittendon on a camp activity day.
Another time, he won a telephone pole climbing contest - the old fashioned way,
with spurs.
We would meet again in
Modesto in l948. Rudy here in l947 to join Gordon and Gale Nutson and Howard Ten
Brink to establish the Wolverine Real Estate and Building Service; Lenore, my
wife, and I here from the Mid-west as directors of a community rehabilitation
project in South Modesto.
In l954, Lenore and I built
our first home, a Rudy design. In l959, Rudy worked with us to design our
present home. There are hundreds of homes in the Modesto area and several
sub-divisions which have Rudy’ signature on them.
Years ago, Rudy, wife June,
some fifteen others and I were on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. One
event stands out as the most wonderful and unique musical experiences of my
life. Our raft beached at Red Rock Cavern, a natural amphitheater, hollowed out
at a bend in the river over eons of time. In a moment of inspiration, Jim
Worthington, Gale Nutson, Rudy singing lead, and I broke into barbershop melody.
The acoustics were like beautiful sparkling crystals as our companions became
reverently quiet. When we finished the piece, the stillness held for a moment as
all realized that we had experienced one of life’s special moments. I shared
this memory with Rudy the day before he died. I thought I saw a smile of
remembrance.
In l985, at the height of
tension between the Soviet Union and the U.S., Rudy and June were in a group of
twenty-five of us who, uninvited, made a peace and friendship visit behind
“enemy” lines (Russia and Ukraine). Rudy’s open, friendly and
knowledgeable manner were a part of the process that eventuated in the
establishment of the Modesto/Khmelnitskiy Sister City relationship.
As I reminisce, I picture
Rudy racing down ski slopes in the Sierra and hiking on High Sierra trails. I
picture him on the tennis courts, a tough competitor with a sizzling cross-court
back-hand and a net defense to avoid, and I realize what a full and diversified
life this friend has lived.
Friendship deepens as it is
nurtured. I am grateful that several years ago I shared with Rudy how much I
valued his friendship. I am grateful I did so at a time when he understood and
reciprocated.
Thanks, friend.
