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Bob Bender, longtime Plainfield resident and activist to be remembered. |
Plainfield friends and neighbors of the late Bob Bender are invited to a memorial gathering this Saturday afternoon (July 13) at 2:00 PM at the Rutgers Labor Center (full details below).
Bob passed away suddenly in April, just days shy of his 80th birthday. Many will remember that Bob and Patty (who was Director of the Plainfield Senior Center for many years) lived for nearly fifty years on West 7th Street, raised their boys -- Nat and Dan -- here, and were active in Plainfield Democratic politics, including the New Democrats.
In addition, Bob and Patty helped found the 'Children of the Rainbow' progressive school here in Plainfield, which was an alternative school for many in the community well before charter schools were even a thought.
Bob and Patty and I were friends from the first moment I met Patty at the Senior Center. I very much enjoyed spending time with them in their spacious and airy West 7th Street home.
Though we had never met before Plainfield, we learned we had crossed paths many times in the 60s and 70s in the course of civil rights and anti-war activism. Though we would sometimes reminisce, Bob was not one for soaking in memories. To the last, he was a man of action in support of justice and the rights of minorities and oppressed peoples.
What I was surprised to learn from his obituary (which you can see here) is that Bob came to New Jersey in the early 1960s as the head of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), a liberal group in its heyday in that period.
It was at that time in Newark that he met Patty Ganley (they organized buses to the March on Washington). They soon married and settled to Plainfield while both were in graduate school.
Bob was involved with Plainfield's Model Cities program (a spin-off from LBJ's 'War on Poverty'). The current Plainfield Action Services (PAS) is the last remnant of the Model Cities era, along with the Plainfield Health Center. Bob also worked for the Spanish Community Organization of Plainfield, and the NJ Puerto Rican Congress.
What inspired me once I had met them was that Bob and Patty would spend vacation time demonstrating for peace and justice -- particularly at the notorious 'school for assassins' at Ft. Benning, which trained the murderous police and armies of repressive Central and South American dictatorships.
Bob also loved to sing and was a member of the Solidarity Singers and Pete Seeger's famous Clearwater Walkabout Chorus. There will be a singalong after the tributes and remembrances, so feel free to bring along an instrument.
All are invited to gather at the Rutgers Labor Education Center at 2:00 PM --
The Labor Center is on the Cook Campus, just off Route 1 and is easy to get to. Looking forward to seeing you there!Rutgers Labor Education Center
50 Labor Center Way
New Brunswick
(Cook College exit)
--- Map and directions here (PDF)
--- Register for FREE parking here (you may be ticketed if you don't) -- or park behind the Sears and walk over.
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