Richard Carbray, Teacher, Peace Activist

Seattle educator Richard Carbray was one of the standard-bearers of the Catholic ecumenical peace movement during the Vietnam War.

This scholar-athlete - whose campaigns for justice and equality brought him friends ranging from retired Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen to FBI-haunted antiwar activists Daniel, Philip and Jerome Berrigan - participated in protest rallies at nuclear and federal facilities in the 1960s and 1970s. He was involved in the Grass-Roots Campaign to Impeach (President) Bush as late as 1990.

He also assisted the late Archbishop Thomas Roberts of Bombay at the Vatican II ecumenical gathering in Rome in 1964 and 1965. The man friends called "Carbs" also chaired Seattle's interfaith board of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. In 1992 he wrote a book, "Prophets of Human Solidarity," about nearly 40 leaders of peace and justice movements.

"He was my idea of a man who lives by his conscience, lives by his religion, and had held fast to that since I knew him," said Donald Pennell, former Paccar executive vice president.

Mr. Carbray died Friday (Oct. 16), of the effects of a stroke. He was 81.

As a teacher of classic languages and a coach of boys sports, he influenced generations of students at private schools and public universities in Seattle and Chicago.

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, he grew up in Seattle and graduated from Seattle Preparatory Academy, where he was a noted athlete. Mr. Carbray earned a bachelor of arts degree in classic languages at the University of Washington in 1941, taught at Lakeside School and was a Army cryptographer in Alaska during World War II.

In the late 1940s he embarked on post-graduate studies in classic languages. He spent three years at University College of Dublin and later returned to the UW, where he earned a master's degree in 1952.

Later, in Chicago, he chaired the language department and taught at Lake Forest Academy and Rosary College.

In the 1960s he returned to Seattle and taught classic languages as well as a popular interdisciplinary course, Dissent and Affirmation, at the UW, Seattle University and Bellevue Community College. He encouraged students to exercise their right to free speech by speaking against war.

That course inspired him to write his book, which includes such influential thinkers as labor activist Harry Bridges, singer Paul Robeson and Dorothy Day, a founder of the Catholic Worker movement who fasted for weeks to show solidarity with the poor.

Mr. Carbray bestowed an honorary master's of peace degree on former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his title for refusing to serve in the military during the Vietnam War.

And he "got us all to stand up to work for and celebrate the possibilities of peace," said his niece Marilyn Hurley Bimstein Conant of Seattle.

Other survivors include his wife of 50 years, Mary DiFabio Carbray of Seattle, and nieces and nephews.

Services were to be at 11:30 a.m. today at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 732 18th Ave. E., Seattle.

Remembrances may go to Seattle Women Act for Peace, 2524 16th Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144; or to the Institute for Motivating Reading, 1902 E. Aloha St., Seattle, WA 98112.