[AEU Announcements] Edward P Gottlieb 1905-2003

[announce-admin at aeu.org]

It is with sadness that I announce the death of Edward Gottlieb who was for 
some time a member of the Brooklyn Ethical Society. He and his wife Marian 
had been living in Northern Virginia in recent years.  He is survived by 
his wife, who is in poor health, their daughter Harriet Sava, four 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"Eddie" was a pacifist, civil rights activist, educator, union man, 
socialist and atheist. He was a teacher and elementary school principal in 
the New York Public Schools. He served for some time as the Brooklyn 
Ethical Society's Sunday School Director and organizer for a national 
Ethical Culture youth organization.  He was a chairman of the War Resisters 
League and was the New York coordinator for one of Norman Thomas' campaigns 
for President, and served on committees to organize several pre-1963 
marches on Washington for civil rights.  He met with President Johnson as 
part of a group that urged creation of the Head Start Program.  He ran for 
Congress on the Socialist ticket, and ran for president of the New York 
local of the American Federation of Teachers, an organization which he 
helped organize.

A memorial service was held on Thursday, April 10, in Arlington, Virginia.

Edward Gottlieb was also a poet.  Here is one of his poems (thanks to 
Howard Box for passing it along):

"Of Universe and Time"

My Life but one long Pilgrimage to Peace
And as I now approach my destined goal
I still must wait upon Nature's caprice
Before I can wind up my Earthly role

My  path was hardly one that I did choose
Met rough and long detours without protest
Sometimes my own erratic way I'd lose
For who can tell which fork might turn out best?

Nor did I always know where Courage called
Where Conscience and the Ego drew their line
If now and then my Spirit did get stalled
'Twas but a human effort to define
A faster way than men had ever crawled
To reach the Peace of Universe and Time

                   -  epg    September 1988



----------------------------
Jone Johnson Lewis
Leader, Northern Virginia Ethical Society
jj at aeu.org  or jj at pbat.com
http://www.noves.org  http://www.aeu.org