February 10, 2008

R.I.P. Ralph DiGia of the War Resisters League

He was a hero of mine ...

WRL.GIF (4682 bytes)

Ralph DiGia
December 13, 1914 – February 1, 2008

Ralph DiGia

Ralph DiGia, lifelong war resister
and pacifist died February 1 in New York City. Ralph had a bad fall a couple of weeks ago, broke his hip, and has had a series of serious health problems following his admission to St. Vincent's Hospital.

Ralph, 93, has been the heart and soul of War Resisters League since he came on staff shortly after the end of World War II and his release from federal prison, where he had served a term for refusing service as a conscientious objector.

An associate of A. J. Muste, Bayard Rustin, Dave Dellinger, Barbara Deming, and many others, Ralph held key posts over the years with Liberation magazine as well as being on the staff of the War Resisters League. While Ralph was not a public speaker or a writer, he played a key a role within the radical pacifist movement, and was central to many of the major antiwar actions of the past six decades.

Ralph DiGia

Ralph was deeply loved by the movement, especially by those at his political home, the War Resisters League. He is survived by his wife, Karin DiGia, his children, and his two brothers.

A funeral and informal gathering was held on
Feb. 2. Arrangements for a memorial will be announced later.

Click here to see the New York Times
Guest Book for Ralph.

A New York Times article about Ralph
(March 22, 2003)

A 1999 interview with Ralph

Remembering Ralph” by David McReynolds

top photo: from 1992
photo to right: Ralph leafletting
at the IRS on Tax Day 2007
PHOTOS: ED HEDEMANN



War Resisters League
339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 228-0450
fax (212) 228-6193
wrl@warresisters.org
WRL homepage

Believing war to be a crime against humanity,
the War Resisters League, founded in 1923,
advocates Gandhian nonviolence as the method for
creating a democratic society free of
war, racism, sexism, and human exploitation.




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