HOW TO GO
What: Opening of the Ted Studebaker exhibit at the Dayton International Peace Museum, 208 W. Monument Ave.
When: 2 to 4 p.m. today, April 26.
What: Peace Heroes Walk to benefit the Peace Museum, the NCCJ, and the Dayton Peace Accord commemoration.
When: 9 a.m. Sunday, May 2, at RiverScape MetroPark. Register at www.peaceheroeswalk.org or just show up at the event.
“War heroes” has a certain ring to it — a phrase that rolls off our tongues so easily that it seems like a single word.
“Peace heroes” sounds more foreign, unnatural. Despite the beatitude that “blessed are the peacemakers,” we don’t tend to honor them.
That’s a dynamic that the Dayton International Peace Museum is hoping to change with its first annual Peace Heroes March next Sunday, May 2.
“We want to expand the notion of hero – that you don’t have to be someone in an action movie to be a hero; you can be a peace hero,” observed spokeswoman Deborah Hogshead. “It’s often an ordinary person who accepts risk and makes the world a less violent and more just place. A peace hero can be Nelson Mandela, or a grandmother, or a soldier — anyone who exemplifies those ideals.”
You could hardly find a better example than Union native Ted Studebaker.
Forty-four years to the day after the conscientious objector was killed in Vietnam, the Peace Museum will honor his life today with the opening of a new exhibit.
During the war, as part of his alternative service, Studebaker helped the Koho people of Di Linh to improve farming practices and production.
His family recalled that Ted told the draft board, “I am willing to go, but I will not carry a gun.”
Instead, he brought his guitar, and soon fell in love with the people and the culture of Vietnam. He signed off on all his letters home, “Yay! Life is great!”
“His letters were joyful,” said his sister, Nancy Smith of Troy.
Yet he was very aware of the danger. Before he left for Vietnam, he told his family, “If I die in Vietnam, know that I died doing what I needed to do. I died doing what I believed.”
Ted grew up on a farm outside of Union, the seventh of eight children of the late Stanley and Zelma Studebaker. He played football for Milton-Union High School, graduating in 1964.
His parents raised him in the Church of the Brethren, which preaches pacifism, and supported his decision to become a conscientious objector when he was drafted after graduating from college with a master’s degree in social work.
“He didn’t want to go to Canada, even though he knew that alternative service was just as dangerous as fighting in Vietnam,” Cornell recalled. “He wasn’t anti-military. After his death, many military people commended him for the work that he did.”
Studebaker raised baby chicks in a bath tub in order to help the Vietnamese farmers to raise chickens. He taught them how to raise bees, and developed a machine to removed the hulls from rice.
He once explained in a letter, “I do not feel ‘the enemy is right,’ any more than I feel the U.S. military is right in being here. I condemn all war, and conscientiously refuse to take part in any active or violent way. I believe love is a stronger and more enduring power than hatred of my fellow man, regardless of who they are or what they believe.”
Studebaker believed so strongly in his mission he signed up for an additional year after completing his mandatory two years of service. He fell in love with a Chinese woman, Ven Pak, a child care specialist working with him through the Vietnam Christian service. They married April 18, 1971.
Eight days later, a mortar shell struck their building.
Smith recounted, “Ted told the women to go into the bunker and he went outside to investigate. They heard him saying in Vietnamese that he didn’t have a gun. Then they heard a gunshot.”
Studebaker was found shot to death, but his swift actions saved the lives of his wife and the volunteer nurse.
ABC Evening News reported that Studebaker, 25, was killed by the Viet Cong, but some mystery remains about who was responsible.
His family is far more interested in a legacy that remains so powerful that Studebaker’s Vietnamese friends have never forgotten him. They befriended two of Ted’s brothers, Gary and Doug, when they visited Di Linh several years ago.
His life has inspired a book and a play and, now, the Peace Museum exhibit. “We feel very honored and humbled that they are doing that,” Cornell said. “It was never Ted’s desire to be a hero. He was a humble kid and a fun-loving kid.”
Recalled Smith, “When he was 10 years old, he was talking about going to a small village and helping people. That was Ted. He was a very special person, and his memory keeps going on and on.”
Smith and Cornell will be part of a team honoring their brother at the Peace Heroes Walk. Registrations are still being accepted for teams to honor heroes who can be local or world-renowned. Peace Museum executive director Jerry Leggett is walking in honor of the late folk singer Pete Seeger. “We are lifting up 60 peace heroes in a way that honors non-violence. The only hope for ending violence is non-violence. If we respond to an outrage like ISIS with violence, it will only create more violence.”
As decorated war hero John F. Kennedy once wrote to a Navy buddy, “War will continue to exist until that day the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
In other words, let’s embrace our peace heroes.
For more information: Learn about Ted Studebaker's life at the virtual exhibit www.daytonpeacemuseum.org and follow the Peace Heroes Exhibit link.
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