***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****

From Ann Arbor News. I couldn't find anythign from NY Times or Toronto
Globe & mail. Shame to both.

 Barry Wellman
 _____________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
        for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
 _____________________________________________________________________

Noted peace researcher Rapoport dies at 95
Ex-U-M professor helped organize teach-in against Vietnam War
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
BY DAVE GERSHMAN
News Staff Reporter

As a professor at the University of Michigan in the 1960s, Anatol Rapoport
was an early critic of the Vietnam War, and one of the faculty members
involved with the nation's first teach-in, held in Ann Arbor.

Rapoport, who moved his family to Toronto in 1970, died Saturday at the
age of 95. But his passion is still felt in Ann Arbor.

Long after the conflict in Southeast Asia had ended, he was still
motivated by the same spark. "He kept up his opposition to war throughout
his life,'' said his son, Anthony.
Advertisement





Rapoport was a professor of mathematical biology in the department of
psychiatry at U-M. After leaving Ann Arbor, Rapoport taught at the
University of Toronto, where he became the school's first professor of
peace and conflict studies. In academia, he was highly-regarded for his
research in the mathematical study of human decisions, and considered a
leading peace researcher.

While at U-M in the mid-1950s, Rapoport was a founding member of the U-M
Mental Health Research Institute.

Rapoport volunteered for military service after the attack on Pearl
Harbor. He served as a supply officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces in
Alaska and India during World War II. But during the years that followed,
his views on war evolved as technology and the development of nuclear
weapons made war more deadly and impersonal, said Anthony Rapoport.

The senior Rapoport was fond of saying "you don't have to hate anybody to
kill everybody,'' his son recalled.

While at U-M in 1965, Rapoport was one of the faculty members who
organized and participated in the first campus teach-in as an intellectual
protest against the war. Rather than attend regular classes, students
participated in anti-war seminars and rallies during the teach-in. The
idea resonated on other campuses and similar events were spawned across
the country.

Rapoport was a frequent speaker at rallies against the war. In April 1967,
for instance, he was quoted in an Ann Arbor News article about a rally of
300 people outside city hall. "By undertaking the war against Vietnam, the
United States has undertaken a war against humanity,'' Rapoport told the
crowd that day. "This war we shall not win.''

One of his colleagues at U-M, J. David Singer, a professor emeritus of
political science, called Rapoport an important catalyst for peace
activists on campus and a brilliant speaker. "He was an extremely
responsible, honest guy,'' said Singer. "He did not fiddle with the
truth.''

The two professors were active in what was called the Center for Research
on Conflict Resolution, founded to involve scientific evidence with
national policy.

"We were not just a bunch of peaceniks,'' said Singer. "We were a bunch of
peaceniks who were very critical of U.S. policy, and the criticism would
range from moderate on my part, to extreme on his part.''

Born in Russia, Rapoport moved with his parents to Chicago in 1922. He
studied in Vienna to become a concert pianist in the 1930s before
returning to his adopted hometown to follow a different pursuit and study
mathematics at the University of Chicago.

Rapoport is survived by his wife, Gwen, and his three children, Anya,
Alexander, and Anthony, all living in the Toronto area.

Dave Gershman can be reached at 734-994-6818 or
[log in to unmask]

_____________________________________________________________________
SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social
network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send
an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line
UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.