A day of remembrance will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 20 for former University law school dean and Sen. Wayne Morse.
Wayne Morse Youth Program organizers scheduled the celebration on the day that would have been Morse’s 102nd birthday. The event will be held at Wayne Morse Park, 595 Crest Drive, where Morse lived for almost 40 years.
The organizers of the event not only wish to honor him, but to celebrate the spirit of his teachings and beliefs as an anti-war and free-speech advocate.
Program Chairman Viktor Stathakis said the event is meant to be a day to focus on grassroots movements. Stathakis said it is also meant to be a day to speak to representatives of local groups such as White Bird Clinic, Womenspace, KRVM, Oregon Country Fair and Saturday Market.
The group intends to put up a canopy in case it rains, said Stathakis, who was also Morse’s friend and driver for the last few years of the former senator’s life.
Event participants will also sing Happy Birthday at 1 p.m. and youth program event service technician Scott Macdonald will videotape people sharing personal stories about the former dean.
“We’re trying to bridge the town-gown gap,” he said. “We need that solidarity between us, so hook up with us locals.”
The event programming also includes guerilla theater performances and music.
Those who remember him called Morse the kind of man who connected with all types of people because he was multifaceted and compassionate.
“He was a farmer-scholar,” Stathakis said.
Others agreed.
“I’m taking his birthday celebration as a chance to pay my respects and indicate the kind of man Morse was,” said Edwin “Bing” Bingham, youth program chairman and professor emeritus of history at the University.
Bingham said Morse helped him in 1954 when he was studying for a year at Yale in New Haven. He said he hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., after his car was impounded, and Morse helped straighten things out for him.
Morse is still admired for his beliefs.
“He was totally against war,” Youth Manager Eileen Erdell said. “He stood for that and never let corporations buy him out.”
Erdell added that these ideas should be considered because of recent United States military decisions.
“Our current government has us thinking that war is necessary,” she said. “It’s not.”
Erdell said Morse was a statesman with strong character.
“He was someone whom I believe our children should be taught about in high school,” Erdell said.
Call 741-0209 for more information.