The Abe Keller Board

Mike Yarrow  Co-President

Mike Yarrow was born in Mississippi in 1940 and grew up largely in southern California and Pennsylvania. After college he spent two years doing alternative service as a conscientious objector to war. In the summer of 1964 he served as a voter registration worker in Mississippi supporting the right of African Americans to vote.

Mike taught sociology for twenty years in New Jersey and New York including the sociology of war and peace. While teaching in Ithaca, New York, he worked to elect minority candidates to the school board, served on the police review board and helped organize the Justice for All organization, which advocated for just treatment of the poor in the county.

In 1999 Mike became organizer for Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation. In that position he organized the Interfaith Working Group for Accountability and Healing, that was made up of Seattle clergy who met repeatedly with city council members to urge reforms in police handling of demonstrations.

To oppose the build-up to war with Iraq, Mike and Jean Buskin drafted the Peace Pledge for the People of Iraq, which was endorsed by over 4,000 people in Washington and 100,000 nationwide. Since then the Yarrows have been active with SNOW, and have organized and taught a summer activist training program for Seattle high schools.

Ruth Yarrow  Co-President

Ruth Yarrow is an environmental educator and peace and justice activist. She grew up across the Midwest, gained a masters degree in evolutionary biology from Cornell, and with Mike Yarrow raised their two children in Ithaca, NY. While in Ithaca, she founded and coordinated the successful Tompkins County Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, worked with racial justice organizations and wrote curricula and taught in the field of environmental education. Since moving to Seattle in 1997, she worked for Physicians for Social Responsibility, educating the public on Hanford Nuclear Reservation clean-up issues, and as a co-organizer for Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR). Now retired, she volunteers with WWFOR, Justice Works!, a grassroots organization to undo racism in the criminal justice system, and other peace and justice efforts. She enjoys backpacking and watercolor painting.

Nancy Dickeman  Secretary

No biography is available at this time.

Wilda Luttermoser  Treasurer

Wilda and her husband, Carl Schwartz, share eight children, thirteen grandchildren, and two mothers. She lives in Sammamish, WA and is an active hiker, camper, birdwatcher, and traveler. Wilda earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Washington, and served as Contract Supervisor for the US Corps of Engineers Chittenden Locks Visitation Program before retirement. She met Abe Keller in the early l980s when he chaired the Educators for Social Responsibility and she chaired the King County Nuclear Freeze Campaign. Wilda has served on the Peace Action Board and presently serves on the United Nations Association-Seattle Board. She also chairs the WA State Arms Trade Project and is an active member of the Northwest Disarmament Coalition.

Jerome Chroman  Board Member

A native of Chicago and a resident of Seattle since 1971, Jerome has a 29 year old son. After graduating in English literature, his early career included many different activities. Since 1976 he has worked as a professional massage therapist and operates, with his life partner Corinne Dee Kelly, at the Abintra Wellness Center. He has been involved in anti-war, peace, and justice issues since the late 1960s. He is currently on two steering committees of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (Promise Washington's Children and Decency Principles Project) and serves on the Board of Coalition for a Jewish Voice. He is active in the African American/Jewish Coalition for Justice, Fellowship for Reconciliation, Children's Alliance of Washington, committees of the University Unitarian Church concerned with children and peace, and the Olum Committee (social action) of Congregation Eitz Or. He and Corinne jointly have received the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee National Social Action Leadership Award and the Human Rights Award of the Seattle chapter of the United Nations Association.

Michael Gillespie  Board Member

Born and raised in Everett, Mike Gillespie taught philosophy for many years in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he is presently Professor Emeritus. Over the years he has developed an academic and practical interest in the connection of worldviews, values, and key issues facing citizens, especially issues relating to peace, social justice, and human impacts on the natural environment. While in Nebraska he was a long-time member of Nebraskans for Peace. In 1998, Mike returned to the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Professor Diane Gillespie, and his daughter, Gemma. Gemma now attends the University of British Columbia, while Mike and Diane's son, Gannon, works with TOSTAN, an NGO based in Senegal. Mike presently teaches in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Bothell, where his courses include Ethics and the Environment, Philosophy of Art, and Philosophy and Ideals of Peace, among others.

George Guttmann  Board Member

George was born in Israel and at the age of 12 emigrated with his family to the U.S. and Seattle. After earning a UW degree in political science, he joined the Peace Corps and worked in Brazil on a low-income housing cooperative and established a manpower training center. George and his wife Lynn have two children. He has been involved in many enterprises relating to home design, construction, and inspection including newspaper, magazine, and radio discussions of home building. He is President of Soundhome Inspection, Inc. and has been active in low-income housing efforts including the Downtown Emergency Service Center and Council House. George has been involved with Abe Keller in a variety of activities including Americans for Peace Now and other groups working on peace in the Middle East, the ACLU, several political campaigns, and the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Thaddeus H. Spratlen  Board Member

Thad is University of Washington Professor of Marketing, and Director, Business and Economic Development Program that provides technical assistance to inner-city businesses. He and his wife Lois Spratlen have 5 children and 7 grandchildren. Thad's involvement in anti-war and peace organizations extends from the 1960s and the Vietnam War to the present. He has long advocated reduced U.S. military budgets, helped to organize UW faculty in advocating divestment of investments in opposition to apartheid in South Africa, organized forum programs linking issues of peace and social justice as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), and served as Editor of the FOR newsletter Pacific Call (following Abe Keller in that role). He has served three terms as a Board Member of the Washington Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and currently is Co-chair of the African-American Jewish Coalition for Justice.

Laura Strauss  Board Member

No biography is available at this time.

Harriett Walden  Board Member

A native of Florida, Harriett has lived in Seattle since 1975. She has 4 sons and a grandchild. As an optician for the past 14 years, Harriett has provided glasses for people in nursing homes throughout the Puget Sound region, driving up to 200 miles in a day to deliver them. She is also an emerging artist, doing water colors for relaxation and to raise money for the many organizations she supports. Harriett is best known as the founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, which works to improve relationships between the police and the people.

Don Whitmore  Board Member

Seattle native Don Whitmore is married, with 6 children and 10 grandchildren. A University of Washington graduate in physics, he retired from Boeing after 32 years to concentrate on issues of peace and justice. Don was the initiator, organizer, and first President of the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund. He has sat at both ends of the grant-making table, as Trustee and Vice President of the Boeing Employees Good Neighbor Fund and as writer of successful proposals. Don has served in a wide variety of community leadership positions, and has worked to promote nuclear disarmament for over 30 years. He is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Arms Control Association. He founded the Third Millennium Foundation in 1993, and is a frequent lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He has testified on environmental impacts of basing missile defense installations in Alaska and at Dept. of Energy hearings on installing the fast flux reactor at Hanford. He is also a real estate investor/developer.

Bill Whitmore  Board Member

After a brief stint in the banking industry, Bill continues his lengthy career in telecommunications with a new position in the corporate offices of Clearwire, provider of high-speed wireless broadband service. In 2007, Bill earned a Masters in Business Administration at Pacific Lutheran University, returning to school many years after receiving a bachelor's degree in education. Bill's volunteer activities have included serving as a Cub Scout pack leader, PTA treasurer, and Director of Children's Ministries at a local church. His connection with the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund dates back to 1999, when he began to manage the group's web site and membership mailings. Bill lives in Auburn with his youngest son, and he enjoys brisk walks around the neighborhood, traveling, music, reading, and working on cryptic crossword puzzles.