James Lawrence Missey

Missey, James Lawrence

JULY 9, 1935 -

APRIL 30, 2015

James (Jim) L. Missey, 79, Stevens Point, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) who was a well-known activist for peace, died April 30, 2015, at Weyauwega Health Care Center in Weyauwega, Wis., where he had resided for the past two-and-one-half years.

A Memorial Service and Celebration of Life will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, in the Laird Room North, Dreyfus University Center (DUC), UWSP, in Stevens Point, Wis.

Visitation will be at the DUC from 6 p.m. Tuesday until the services.

A private family service was held in New London, Wis., Wednesday, May 6, at Cline Hanson Funeral Home, with the Reverend Kate Croskery Jones officiating. Burial was May 7, in Guardian Angel Cemetery in Stevens Point, Wis. Condolences may be offered online at www.clinehansonfuneralhome.com.

The family would like to thank the nursing home staff at Weyauwega Health Care Center who supported Mr. Missey in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease, and the staff at Cline Hanson Funeral Home who helped the family create a meaningful service.

Mr. Missey was born July 9, 1935, in San Bernardino, Calif., a son of the late Lawrence and Lena (Rhodes) Missey. He grew up In Colton, Calif., and graduated from Colton High School in 1953. In high school, he played on the basketball and tennis teams; was a member of the Latin Club, National Forensic League and Scholarship Society; and served as chaplain of the Hi-Y Club (the boys' affiliate of the YMCA).

He attended the University of Redlands, Redlands, Calif., for one year as a pre-ministerial student, and it was there that he became a pacifist. He transferred to Pomona College, Claremont, Calif., for his sophomore year, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English literature and philosophy in 1957. He received master's and doctor's degrees in English, with a specialty in late Victorian literature, from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn., in 1962.

After teaching English at Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., and Dennison University, Granville, Ohio, he began a thirty-four- year career at UWSP in 1966, retiring in 2000. He taught courses in Victorian, American and dramatic literature and freshman English. He focused on teaching freshmen in the last years of his career.

He was married to Mary Jane Saunders in Granville, Ohio, in June 1965. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1970. They later divorced. He and Catherine (Cathy) Dugan married in 1980, divorced in 1989 and later remarried.

During his years in graduate school in Philadelphia, the birthplace of Quakerism in the United States, Mr. Missey evolved as a pacifist, conscientious objector and advocate for social justice, honing skills in reconciliation, non-violent direct action, passive resistance and civil disobedience. He used those skills to help UWSP students conduct peaceful demonstrations against United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

In The Eve of Revolution: An Antiwar Memoir, published by the Portage County Historical Society, he chronicled the especially tense academic year 1969-70 when anti-war demonstrations were at their height. Two decades later, he published "Revisiting the Intensity of the '60s" in The Christian Science Monitor. In it, he reflected on the Vietnam era and compared it with the 1990s.

In 2003, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. Earlier, he was featured in an exhibition of photography by John Hartman honoring people who made a difference in Portage County life.

For most of four decades, Mr. Missey could be found every week in downtown Stevens Point, alone and with others, at a peaceful demonstration against U.S. involvement in wars around the globe. "There's always one achievement from a demonstration no matter whether I stand alone or with 100 people," he said. "We may not stop the war or the killing or the violence, but we reiterate our right to peaceful assembly," our First Amendment right ("Searching for Peace," Stevens Point Journal, 11 Sept. 2002).

In retirement, he researched the Christian anarchist Ammon Hennacy, whose autobiography The Book of Ammon he co-edited with Mr. Hennacy's widow, Joan Thomas. He made invited presentations on his research in Stevens Point and New York. He enjoyed attending and leading classes in Learning Is Forever (LIFE), an educational program for retired adults located at UWSP.

Mr. Missey's retirement included more frequent travel to Europe to visit his daughter and her family in England. He spent more time reading, bicycling and walking, and playing ping pong and chess with friends. He cooked more, always vegetarian as that was his lifelong diet. He mentored his wife as she began speaking and writing on local civic matters.

Survivors include his wife, Catherine (Cathy) Dugan, Stevens Point; his daughter, Elizabeth (Robert) Oliver, Tonbridge, England; two stepdaughters, Elaine Meyer Borbiro, Cottage Grove, Wis., and Laura Meyer (Ihor), Bardachiwski, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.; two granddaughters, Madeleine and Lily Oliver, Tonbridge, England; a step-granddaughter, Theresa Raczek, Stevens Point, Wis.; two nephews and one niece, Douglas (Debbie) Mason, Kenneth (Dana) Crawley and Carol Mason, Calif.; and his first wife, Jane (Charles) Macnaghten, Northern Ireland.

He was also preceded in death by his brother, Glenn Missey, and sisters, Ruth Mason and Fern Crawley.