Friends plan tribute to peace activist Jim Munves

Jim Munves left a legacy of peace and community when he died Aug. 31 in Charlottetown at the age of 96.

That legacy will be celebrated at an event Wednesday night at the Farm Centre in Charlottetown.

Munves was born in the U.S. and served in the Second World War, earning a Purple Heart, before becoming an anti-war activist.

As a freelance writer, he travelled around the world before making a life on Prince Edward Island, where he continued as an activist for peace and for public transportation.

David MacKay and Ann Wheatley, who are helping organize Wednesday's tribute, said Munves brought a lot of "energy and knowledge" when he came to P.E.I.

Moved to P.E.I.

Munves was disillusioned with U.S. politics, so decided to move to Canada, MacKay said.

"We're all happy that he decided to come to this province."

MacKay knew him through the Island Peace Committee. He said Munves was instrumental in forming the Hiroshima Commemorative, which happened for many years on Aug. 6.

Passionate and persistent

Wheatley knew him as a generous man who donated land along the Morell River to the Island Nature Trust, and as a passionate and persistent proponent for public transit.

"He saw public transit as a way of connecting people in communities, of reducing isolation," she said.

"He saw it as an environmental issue but he really looked at it as something that was really fundamental to building communities."

The event gets underway at 7 p.m.

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