June Young Eisley
Peace Activist
“Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
June Young Eisley, age 85, left her earthly life on October 4, 2022.
June was born and raised in Tamaqua and Hometown, PA and graduated from Tamaqua High School and McCann School of Business. She moved to Wilmington, DE in 1965 and took a job with ICI Americas Inc. where she worked for 34 years before retiring.
June was filled with love for dogs and all other creatures. Being in nature filled her with joy, and she felt blessed to have visited many of the national parks in the West. She had a great capacity for caring about others and enjoyed doing things to make their lives a little happier.
June became a peace activist during the Vietnam War, and she organized Mothers United for Peace. She actively protested against the Iraq War and participated in nonviolent civil resistance where she was arrested ten times and went to trial three times. These were meaningful times in June’s life because she was passionate about nonviolence as a means of protest.
She also organized the Coalition for Nuclear Power Plant Postponement in 1973, a Delaware group which was one of the first groups in the country to oppose nuclear energy. In the late ’90s, she was one of the organizers of the Million Mom March group in Wilmington, which advocated for safe gun laws. June had the idea for and organized the first March for a Culture of Peace in Wilmington in 2014. This grew into the Movement for a Culture of Peace, the founding organization for Peace Week Delaware and Nonviolent Wilmington.
June was an active member and former Board member of Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), Wilmington Peacekeepers, Nonviolent Wilmington, DelPHR, and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) where she served on the local Board, and she supported many national peace and environmental groups and local social justice groups. She was a spiritual seeker and attended Silverside Church, a progressive seekers’ congregation.
Through the years, June was a volunteer for PCRF, Read Aloud Delaware, Meals on Wheels, Epiphany House, Code Purple, Baylor Women’s Prison, Creative Mentoring, Nemours Children’s Hospital, and Gov. Bacon Health Center.
June was predeceased by her beloved son, Bill, her parents Aubrey and Mildred Young, and her three best friends, Lassie, Maggie, and Molliepoodle. She is survived by her grandson William Shane Eisley (Jaimie), Los Angeles, CA, brothers Richard Young (Marie), Edison, NJ, and Donald Young, Hazleton, PA, and two nieces and their spouses and five great-nieces, all in NJ, and many friends who shared their lives with June.
June asked for contributions in her memory to be sent to Campaign Nonviolence, c/o Pace e Bene, PO Box F, Corvallis, OR 97335.
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