“I believe in a life of love . . . the life as preached by Christ and many others since. The God I believe in is a God of love. He loves us infinitely and eternally. He speaks to us in many ways: through the mouths of others, through beautiful things in our life and through our own consciences.
“I cannot believe that war is the way of love offered by God. … I cannot look on reregistration for the military service as a loving act towards anyone. …
“I believe that when a law is disobeyed in favor of the higher law, the offender must and should pay the penalty cheerfully and with no feeling of enmity towards those who carry out the will of the majority.”
So said Arnold Chase Satterthwait on Eleventh Month 26, 1941 at his trial for being a non-registrant for the draft. He was just 21 years old and spent four years of his life in prison for being true to his conscience.
Our Friend passed from this realm on Eleventh Month 29, 2012.
Arnold was born Fourth Month 8, 1920. He was the descendent of a line of Quakers dating back to the time of George Fox, and the early founders of Pennsylvania, Thomas Lloyd, Governor, and James Logan, secretary and representative of William Penn.
During his lifetime, Arnold was a member of the Lansdown Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania and later the Pullman Moscow Monthly Meeting in Moscow, Idaho, where his Light has been a constant and consistent presence. His smile was pure delight.
After serving two sentence in prison (both for being non-registrant to the draft), Arnold completed an undergraduate degree at Haverford. Three years later, Arnold and his wife Fanny Jane and their five children traveled to Saudi Arabia, where they spent the next ten years. There he taught Arabic to employees of the Arabian American Oil Company.
On returning to this country, Arnold earned a doctorate of Philosophy in Linguistics from Haverford.
Arnold and his family then moved to Pullman, Washington, where he became a faculty member at Washington State University. During the 1960s and 1970s, dissident students found in Arnold a defender of their concerns. He championed their causes.
When Fanny Jane became seriously ill, Arnold retired from the university to care for her. He became her devoted and dedicated nurse with infinite patience, and her full-time companion. Fanny Jane died in 2002. Even though Arnold was exhausted, he was also resilient and started to work on his genealogy.
Arnold had help in researching his ancestry. Another meeting member, Florence Bye (Brown) helped him, and they discovered numerous common ancestors. Eventually, their relationship deepened, and on Ninth Month 20, 2003, they were married under the care of Pullman Moscow Monthly Meeting.
Arnold Chase Satterthwait never lost his sense of conscience. Throughout his life he maintained, “God is Love,” and let that Light shine through him to all he met. He led a life closely meshed with his values.
In Arnold’s later years, as memory began to elude him, he managed to retain his dignity and grace, and was a beacon of peace, love, and hope. In this he was our beloved Arnold and friend.