(August 21, 2010)
Dear friends:
I want to share with all of you and the ICAR community at large that our respected colleague and friend Wallace Warfield passed away early this morning. As many of you know he was a special man and our community will deeply miss him in many ways. Wallace has been our close colleague for years, and all of us loved him dearly. He has such a place in so many hearts, and has mentored so many of us over the years, that it has been hard to convey how sad this makes us. Wallace is an inspiration and a pillar of the experience of many of us at ICAR. Many did not realize the extent to which Wallace was ill and found that what strength and hope we could offer could only come from afar.
The family has asked to have a memorial service with the ICAR Community at Point of View. We will follow up with details about the service as well as the creation of memorial funds. This occasion will provide all of us and the many friends around Wallace an opportunity to come together once more with him and his legacy. I am sure that the whole community will join me in supporting his family, especially his daughter Anjua, his partner Alicia, sister Vivian, brother Arthur, and nieces Kim and Laila.
Wallace reminds us that there are many forms of greatness; his form has always involved paying total attention to other people, transcending all limited identities, laughing at life's nasty jokes, and acting like that rarest of creatures, a grown-up. It's hard to think about starting a new term without him and yet we need to begin. Today is orientation, the start of a new semester, and we will carry on with Wallace in our hearts.
In friendship,
Andrea Bartoli
ICAR Director
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W2 will be sorely missed. He was a mentor, a voice of reason in a world of conflict, and most of all he was full of joy and humor, a true inspiration to all of us. May he rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteWith my deepest sympathies,
Rabih Zahnan
I spent Saturday morning writing a letter to Wallace so his partner could read it to him. My timing was a bit late so I would like to share it with all of you.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like everyone else, I LOVE Wallace. What a wonderful mentor and teacher.
For Wallace...
I’m feeling a little bit sentimental and just want you to know how fond of you I am, and how much I appreciate everything you have contributed to my life and work. You are a great, thoughtful teacher.
I always tell “younger” mediators and facilitators, as well as myself, something you told me a long time ago: after a meeting or negotiation session, you always wish you had done at least one thing differently. I always think about this when I leave a meeting. I think about it if I have said the wrong thing; or wished I had intervened differently, or not at all. It reminds me to reflect on these turning points and also helps me to move on.
The other thing that I appreciate tremendously is how you opened so many doors for me. When I moved to California, you knew everyone and just had me call them using your name. Of course, everyone would talk to me with your referral. It meant so much to me and helped me to launch my work.
Lastly, I just loved your good humor and how you teased me. You are obviously a serious person teaching and thinking (behind those glasses) about students’ comments, mediating in Rwanda and who knows what other amazing thing... Yet, you would poke fun at me and have such a good time. It was very endearing.
I don’t know if you know, but I always identify you as one of my important mentors.
Gina Bartlett, San Francisco (MS 1994)
Lamentamos muchísimo la partida del profesor Wallace Warfield.
ReplyDeleteTuve la oportunidad hace años de conocerlo en Justapaz, me impactó muchísimo su sencillez.
La luz del espíritu del profesor Wallace guíe el camino de los constructores y constructoras de paz y su compromiso sincero, su legado intelectual y su carisma sean un ejemplo a seguir.
Un abrazo solidario y de paz.
Patricia Romero Sánchez
Equipo de CREARC
Bogotá - Colombia
August 17, 2010
ReplyDeleteDear Wallace,
The first time I saw you, revered you, and longed to meet you was in the printed word, where all the great men in my life reside
eternally. Your name was in an edited volume of ICAR writings, and what you wrote spoke to my head and my heart simultaneously. You
were one of the big men, the great men of ICAR who I both admired and was intimidated by in your accomplishments. And your name, so
distinguished, Wallace Warfield (I am used to growing up with people named Sam Dershowitz, Sidney Stern, Feivel Cohen, not exactly intimidating stuff) made me even more intimidated. Then I spotted you in the hallways of ICAR, with your customary
turtleneck and classy sports jacket, and then you spoke in your
King’s English, and I was even more intimidated!
But what a model it created for me, to work for, to live for, to fight for in my life, to try to become, to have the audacity to
become--a professor, and not just any simple professor but a scholar practitioner. You set me on a noble journey that I have yet to really live up to, but I am trying.
There is something about your combination of engagement with the toughest problems in this world, just a few miles from school in
the District, and your nobility of character and demeanor, that fills me with awe, with a sense of the eternal things of life, the
things that never die, the great men of history, whose small time on this earth cannot hold a candle to the eternal things they stand for, for truth, beauty, nonviolence, justice, courage,nobility.
I miss you, my teacher, my colleague, and I am so very grateful to this universe for your life.
Marc Gopin
I met Wally years ago when he was my student in the USC MPA program. I immediately bonded with him since we shared some experiences in the early days of the civil rights movement. I tried to keep in touch with him and always enjoyed hearing about his dispute work and his experience in the PhD program. Just last week I was editing my address book and realized that I hadn't been in contact with him for a long time. And then I read the obit in the POST. He was an extraordinary person -- committed, bright and incredibly humane. His death is a real loss to many of us. Beryl Radin, American University
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