Our mother, Louise Alice Muenzer Bruyn, 94 years old, passed away peacefully on Sunday, December 1st. She was an extraordinary woman. Her commitment to peace, justice, nonviolence and the environment will remain her legacy for years to come. Over her lifetime, she was not only an elementary school teacher, a dance teacher and a wood working teacher, she was a social activist, a Quaker who believed in the power of making change through peaceful actions. For example, in 1971 she walked from Boston to Washington DC to protest the Vietnam war and 40 years later wrote a book about it. Forever a strong advocate of women’s rights, nonviolence, and the environment, in 1990, she founded the Green Decade known now as Green Newton that became a model for addressing issues of climate change for other cities. Liberal to the end, her sense of social justice was what drove her throughout her life, all while raising a family. She will be deeply missed.