Remembering Henry Stokes, Quaker Volunteer Medic in Caves of Yenan

Friends Ambulance Unit volunteer Frank Miles in Shanxi Province, China, 1947.

New York, N.Y. Perhaps the grandest relative I ever had was neither a Luce nor a Dudley. He joined our family as my regal aunt Elizabeth’s second husband. I would sit by him, mesmerized, at the South Shore Boston home my grandfather built in the 1940’s as he regaled me with tales of his volunteer medic days with Mao Tze Tung and troops in the caves of Yenan. His name was Henry W. Stokes of Philadelphia.

My cousin wrote a few hours ago to say, “Henry died peacefully at home on Sunday morning (9/26) at sunrise over Hingham Harbor at his home at 153 Otis Street. There will be Quaker memorial service on Oct 16 at 11:00 at the Fellowship Hall of the Old Ship Church. He was 92 years old and certainly was a Renaissance man with so many different interests and talents.”

Henry W. Stokes died at home in Hingham September 26, 2010. Born to Francis J. and Lelia W. Stokes, Henry attended Germantown Friends School (1936) and, like my father, Dartmouth College (1940).  He worked at Foxboro Company 1941-1944, when he joined The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Friends’ Ambulance Unit in India and China. He added charcoal burning engines to 2½ ton Dodge trucks used as ambulances. Henry designed precision tools at his factory, Woodruff and Stokes Co.

According to the Nobel Prize Committee, which conferred the American Friends Service Committee with its prize in 1947:

The AFSC was founded in 1917 by members of the Religious Society of Friends in the U.S. in order to provide young Quakers and other conscientious objectors to war with an opportunity to perform a service of love in wartime.  In the ensuing years, the Committee has continued to serve as a channel for Quaker concerns growing out of the basic Quaker belief that «there is that of God in every man» and the basic Quaker faith that the power of love can «take away the occasion for all wars».  

Though the Religious Society of Friends itself is small, the work of the Committee is supported by thousands of like-minded men and women of many races, creeds, and nationalities, who serve on its staff or make contributions, both financial and spiritual, to its ongoing programs.

«A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it;» wrote William Penn, the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania in the seventeenth century; «let us then try what love can do.» When the AFSC celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1967, «To See What Love Can Do» became its motto.

According to his obituary:

Henry’s strong sense of civic responsibility led him to serve on many boards in Hingham including overseeing the building of the Middle, Plymouth River, and East Schools, as well as additions to the Central Jr. High, High School and Foster Schools. He served as Selectman. One of his greatest contributions to Hingham was to help raise funds for the purchase of World’s End.”

Henry had a passion for nature, sailing, repairing clocks, and inventing. He loved to solve problems especially when it meant making a device that saved time or energy.

Henry is survived by brother David, four children from his first wife Katharine Sangree: Alison Gottlieb, Joan Sangree, Lelia Weinstein and Henry Sangree Stokes, three step-children from his marriage to Elizabeth Allyn: Judith Rheinstrom, Claudia Downey, and Jonathan Allyn, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The memorial service will be held on October 16th at 11am at the Old Ship Church Fellowship Hall in Hingham, Mass. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Trustees of Reservations.

I embraced Henry Stokes as an uncle from the day I met him decades ago. He was perfect for my aunt Elizabeth – and he was the perfect uncle. He was also generous with my own charity, Orphans International Worldwide (OIW). I can only hope to inspire my own nieces and nephews in the grand manner that Henry Stokes inspired me. A man of the strongest possible convictions, he was my own family’s true thought leader and global citizen.

Remembering Henry Stokes, Quaker Volunteer Medic in Caves of Yenan (Originally published in Daily Kos, Oct. 9, 2010)

See also by Jim Luce:

• Remembering Elizabeth Luce Allyn Stokes (1925 – 2003)
• Remembering my Father, Stanford Leonard Luce (1923 – 2007)