R. Scott Kennedy
Activist, educator, politician, great father and husband, Scott died in his sleep of natural causes on November 19, 2011, at age 62.
Scott was born in Nebraska in 1948, grew up in San Jose, California and went to public schools, including Willow Glen High School, where he met his soulmate and future wife, Kristin Champion. Scott grew up in the United Methodist Church and remained an active church member throughout his life. Scott was a Boy Scout and enjoyed many sports in school, including swimming. He was class president in high school.
Scott attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, graduating with honors in the History Major and Cowell College honors. He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and completed his alternative civilian service in Isla Vista, California, where he co-founded the Isla Vista Youth Project and several other community programs. He was a war tax resister from the Vietnam War until 2009.
Scott co-founded the Resource Center for Nonviolence in 1976 and ran the Center’s Middle East Program. 
He engaged with a wide range of social movements and nonviolent campaigns, from creating a nuclear-free zone in Santa Cruz and working for a nuclear-free future in Santa Cruz and at Diablo Canyon, to the Farmworkers’ fight to unionize, and human rights struggles in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Scott was elected to three terms on the Santa Cruz City Council and served twice as mayor, where a resolution against the first Iraq war and completion of a city greenbelt, a community soccer field and several affordable housing developments were some of his proudest accomplishments.
Scott’s involvement in struggles for a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began when he traveled to the region as a freshman in college in 1968 with his oldest sister Diane Kennedy Pike and her husband, the late bishop James Pike. Since then, Scott worked to support those Israelis and Palestinians committed to waging nonviolent struggle to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. He led some 40 delegations to the region to help Americans understand U.S. foreign policy and support a just, two-state solution.
Scott enjoyed humor, travel and going to movies. He loved the San Francisco Giants, Van Morrison and country music, and his dog, Barack, adopted the week President Obama was elected.
We would like to collect photos and videos of Scott, his work and life. Video testimonials or photos may be emailed to the Kennedys or RCNV:
posted to Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=684992153
or mailed to RCNV, 515 Broadway,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
We are grateful for a world of friends, family, and companions
who walked with Scott, and who
continue to walk for freedom and
justice through steadfast
nonviolence and love.
— The Kennedy Family
