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Larry Gara’s Voice Heard Throughout the World Wednesday

Emeritus Prof Featured in AP Story and Annual History Lecture Now Bears His Name Wednesday, Oct. 28, started for Larry Gara with him simply preparing for his role as this year’s presenter at Wilmington College’s annual History Lecture, but things quickly took a dramatic turn for the 93-year-old emeritus professor of history. (PICTURED) Larry Gara presents the annual WC History Lecture Oct. 28. He noticed that someone posted on his Facebook timeline a link to a story about him that ran in the Honolulu Star Advertiser. He soon learned that literally hundreds of major media — and numerous local and regional newspapers, television and radio stations — picked up the Associated Press story. The New York Times, London’s The Guardian, ABC News, San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo! News and the major newspapers from Tampa and Houston to St. Louis and Pittsburgh all featured a compelling story that dates back some 53 years, yet is but one chapter in Gara’s fascinating life. See the full story here “I was thinking about what was going to happen with the History Lecture and this showed up — wow!” Gara said. The 93-year-old emeritus professor of history knew a story was forthcoming when an Associated Press reporter and photographer visited him earlier this month. The news syndicate learned that Gara had been visited this summer by the recently retired president of Grove City College (Pa.) to apologize on behalf of the institution for unfairly firing him in 1962. At the time, the height of the Cold War, Grove City’s Board of Trustees chairman and major donor didn’t like Gara’s outspoken opposition on such issues as the threat of nuclear war and research of period documents proved that he demanded Gara’s termination on the trumped-up charges of poor teaching and what Gara calls the “ridiculous” notion of his being a communist. Grove City faculty and students rallied to his defense but to no avail. More than 50 years later, a Grove City alumnus conducted research on the case and presented it to the current administration indicating that Gara was “railroaded” out of his faculty position. The former college president followed his visit with a letter stating Grove City’s actions in 1962 were “inappropriate and unfair.” The entire episode with the president’s recent visit and letter, complemented by the AP story, provides a significant degree of vindication for the lifelong pacifist and peace/social justice advocate. “I feel very good about that story. I’m a little embarrassed by all the attention, but I guess I have something to say,” he said. Ever the optimist, Gara said the firing opened the door to his coming to Wilmington College, where he spent the duration of his teaching career from 1962 through his retirement in 1992. He continued to teach part time for another 10 years and continues to be an active member of the campus community. He said he ended up at Wilmington “the hard way, but that’s typically my karma.” Gara mentioned the Grove City incident in his History Lecture talk titled “The Constitution, Freedom of Speech and the Historian.” He covered events in his life and career as they have reflected and projected upon First Amendment issues. His experiences have taken him from nonviolent demonstrations to the U.S. Supreme Court and even prison for standing up for his beliefs. Gara was especially impressed with his largely student audience. “They were really attentive,” he said. “I’m very pleased that people were positive about what I had to say.” Following his speech, Edward Agran, professor of history, announced that, henceforth, the event would be called the “Larry and Lenna Mae Gara Annual History Lecture.” “That’s the icing on the cake,” Gara said. “I was bowled over by it.”