Robert Paul Jolly

Jolly—Robert Paul Jolly, 89, on March 20, 2016, at home in Oakland, Calif. Bob was born on April 7, 1926, in Canoga Park, Calif., to Margarett Pinson and Hubert Jolly. When he was very young, his family moved to Santa Barbara, Calif. His mother was a teacher, and after attending public schools, at 18 he was drafted into the army, serving in 1944–46 and ending his service in the Philippines. After his discharge, he returned to Santa Barbara and attended University of California (then Santa Barbara College), where he helped organize an interracial fraternity. He received a master’s in English from University of North Carolina and taught in Santa Barbara; Oakland, Calif.; Turkey; and Greece.

While teaching at Robert College in Istanbul, he met Connie Shepard. They married in 1957 and moved to Oakland in 1962. Joining Berkeley (Calif.) Meeting in 1964, for a half-century he served on meeting committees, counseled draftees, and took part in peace demonstrations and civil rights marches. He represented the meeting in Memphis, Tenn., to support the sanitation workers’ strike shortly before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and was among the founders of the East Bay chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. After he retired from teaching in 1986, he volunteered for American Friends Service Committee’s GI Rights Network (then the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors) to support men and women in their efforts to leave the military with an honorary discharge before their term was complete.

In addition to his work for peace and justice, he liked traveling, music, running, hiking, and swimming. He volunteered for the East Bay Regional Parks Hiking Patrol, and a bench in his name is situated at the top of the Seaview Trail in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley. In 2012, he and Connie moved to retirement community Grand Lake Gardens.

Bob is survived by his wife, Connie Shepard Jolly; their children, Margarett Jolly, Paul Jolly, and Catherine Jolly; two daughters-in-law, Leslie Feldman and Andrea Baddell; and one grandson.