Glenn Paige’s 80th Birthday Celebrated
On Sunday, 28 July 2009, Glenda Paige and the Center for Global Nonkilling hosted an afternoon tea to celebrate Glenn’s 80th birthday at the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu, Hawai`i. More than 50 family, friends, colleagues and supporters came together to honor and cherish Glenn’s milestone. Glenn was surprised by a full program designed to honor him and his life story so far and his many accomplishments.
The reception table included a scrapbook of letters and well wishes from old friends and colleagues from across the planet, copies of many translations of Glenn’s seminal book, Nonkilling Global Political Science, and photographs from the many decades of his life. After a brief welcome, the guests enjoyed a multimedia presentation of well wishes and several video messages. Glenn and Glenda’s family were introduced and represented five generations of Glenn’s family – three children (Jan, Sharon and Van), two granddaughters (Nicole and Michele), a great granddaughter (Vickie), and great great grandson (Logan). The emcee introduced the afternoon with a moment of reflection and comments about the seven generations related to Glenn who were represented in some way during the program. Glenn’s focus on the mission of working toward a world without humans killing humans was highlighted.
The first speaker was Glenn’s daughter, Jan Paige, who spoke on behalf of the family expressing their love and appreciation. Ha`aheo Guanson spoke eloquently of Glenn’s powerful nonkilling message and vision and read a letter from a Hawaiian peace artist, musician Keith Haugen. Glenda presented a traditional shawl from Bangalore from Ambassador Alan Nazareth. Karen Cross read a congratulations and happy birthday letter from Congressman Abercrombie and Tom Fee read a letter from Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman.
Next, birthday video greetings were shown. The first video was prepared by Glenn’s brother Kent who produced a moving travelogue documenting family links to Brockton, Massachusetts and Cape Cod and New England. Additional video messages were sent from Bill Bhaneja in Ottawa, Canada; Francisco Gomes de Matos in Recife, Brazil (who surprised Glenn with a new book of poetry he wrote to honor Glenn’s 80th birthday, Nurturing Nonkilling: A Poetic Plantation); Fidelis Allen from Port Harcourt Nigeria; and Bishop Lucien Mabwe from the Great Lakes region, Africa.
A sing along was lead by a video and lyrics from Anis Hamadeh and his nonkilling crew in Germany. The new song and accompanying video produced for this event were sung and enjoyed by all.
The CGNK Leadership Team spoke about the history of the new organization and its foundation in Glenn’s more than three decades of work on nonkilling. Luis Botero from Medellin, Colombia led the group in a reading of the Affirmation of the Global Nonkilling Spirit written by Glenn. Katherine Li described ongoing efforts to launch a Nonkilling Hawai`i initiative. Joám Evans Pim from Brazil and Galiza presented the new poetry book to Glenn. Karen Cross and Tom Fee presented a framed art poster of peace, nonviolence and nonkilling themed bumperstickers. Greg Bourne highlighted all of CGNK’s 2009 programs and encouraged people to have friends visit the website and consider ways to support the mission financially and otherwise so Glenn’s mission to support global efforts towards a nonkilling society are sustained.
The pièce de résistance of the afternoon was the 20 minute production “Discovering Glenn Paige” narrated and developed by Glenda Paige assisted by Joám Evans Pim. It was a moving and inspiring story of Glenn’s life from childhood to college to the military to his PhD 50 years ago to Hawai`i in 1967 and the past four decades working on nonkilling.
The birthday toast was made by Professor George Simson, followed by remarks by Glenn and a birthday cake presentation by Glenda.
