Lonnie Valentine

Valentine—Lonnie Valentine, 74, on June 19, 2023, during treatment for primary cerebral lymphoma in Richmond, Ind.

Lonnie earned a bachelor’s degree in 1970 from University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.; a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion in 1975 from the University of California, Irvine; a master’s degree from Loyola College in Maryland; a master’s degree in religion in 1983 from Earlham School of Religion (ESR) in Richmond, Ind.; and a doctorate in constructive theology in 1989 from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.

Lonnie’s peace activism began during two years of alternative service in a maximum-security mental health institution during the Vietnam War. There he saw the systemic face of injustice. Subsequently, he sought to help build peace through draft counseling; anti-nuclear power organizing; and resisting payment of federal income taxes used for war and giving the refused taxes to peace organizations.

This work led him to an awareness of Quakers. He began attending Quaker meetings and eventually joined the Society of Friends in 1989, just before beginning his long tenure as a professor of peace and justice studies at ESR. Lonnie taught ethics, interfaith dialogue, moral and faith development, spirituality and peacemaking, liberation and process theologies, and biblical violence and nonviolence. Lonnie was loved by the many hundreds of students that he taught at ESR and Bethany Theological Seminary, and throughout the wider Quaker community. He was known for his personal history of tax resistance and other peace and justice actions, leading students on trips to protest the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, and accompanying groups of students to attend annual conferences for Friends Committee on National Legislation. Lonnie led educational trips to India and took great interest in international students studying at ESR.

Lonnie and others successfully organized for Earlham cafeteria workers to keep their health benefits. When the local Wayne County Health Department came under fire for its response to the COVID crisis, Lonnie organized a demonstration in support of the health department. Lonnie opposed many injustices, but when he found an organization like the health department that was doing good for people, he was ready with his support.

Lonnie was a member of the unprogrammed Clear Creek Meeting on Earlham’s campus, and frequently offered adult education courses at the programmed West Richmond Meeting. He served on a Peace and Social Concerns Committee organized by the three Quaker meetings in Richmond, the third one being First Friends Meeting.

Toward the end of his teaching career, Lonnie held the Trueblood Chair of Christian Thought, and in that capacity furthered his long-standing interest in Quaker war tax resistance and process theology. On one unforgettable weekend, he invited war tax resisters to come to Earlham to share papers and perspectives, and to learn from each other.

During his final years at ESR, Lonnie instituted the Master of Arts in Peace and Social Transformation program, which was designed for those interested in social justice, public service, peacemaking, or interfaith work.

Lonnie retired from Earlham as professor emeritus of peace and justice studies at the close of the 2021‐22 school year.

Lonnie’s works are included in The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, Quaker Religious Thought, and Friends Association of Higher Education publications, among others. He offered countless presentations at national peace conferences; yearly meeting annual sessions; Church of the Brethren gatherings; American Academy of Religion; Friends World Committee for Consultation; the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee; individual Quaker meetings and churches; and to anyone willing to join with him in the pursuit of peace.

Lonnie is survived by his wife, Genevieve Baird; two children, Cady Valentine and Ben Valentine; and one grandchild.