Professor Glenn Paige (1929-2017), by Mairead Maguire

Obituary by Máiread Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, Ireland.

I am very sorry to hear of the death of my good friend, Professor Glenn Paige who passed away on Sunday 20th January, 2017. Glenn was 87 years of age and he died at the end of a struggling illness during which he was nursed by his wonderful partner, and co-peacemaker, Glenda Paige. Glenn died in Honolulu, Hawai’i, where he lived and worked as founder and Chair of the Center for Global Nonkilling.

I want to express to Glenda and the family my condolences on the passing of her beloved Glenn. She will now be deeply sad at his passing, but I know too she will be consoled knowing Glenn’s spirit will be with her always giving her strength to carry on.

I had the pleasure of meeting Glenn for the first time at a peace conference in India many years ago and I was struck by his joy and enthusiasm for his peace work. He believed passionately in the possibility of a world without killing, a world of peace. When he spoke he inspired all those listening to believe in this themselves and inspired a vision of a human family built on reverence for life and refusing to kill. He coined the word ‘nonkilling’ and later set up the Center for Global Nonkilling in Honolulu. I again met Glenn in November 2007, when he invited me to attend the First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum held in Honolulu. As an American soldier in the Korean war who travelled the road from violence to nonviolence, Glenn knew the cost of violence and war and I believe from here came his great passion for peace.

Glenn’s book Nonkilling Global Political Science (2002) has now been translated into 30 languages, and is a must read for all those who take serious our greatest challenge in today’s world, ‘how do we use nonkilling social and global transformation to move from a violent to a nonviolent culture in the 21st century?‘.

We are indebted to our beloved Glenn, who gave the world a vision of nonkilling and himself lived a life of nonviolence based on love and compassion. His peaceful spirit and beautiful smile remains to give us the courage and commitment to continue building a nonkilling, peaceful world.

Máiread Maguire
Nobel Peace Laureate
Co-founder, Peace People, Ireland
January 2017