About the Author:
Robert Cook Folwell III, born January 13, 1919, was the oldest of three sons of Elizabeth Sellers Pennock and Robert Cook Folwell, Jr., a famous football coach. He grew up in the southern New Jersey farm town of Mullica Hill, where seven generations of Quaker Folwells had lived. At age eight, his boyhood, which he remembered so vividly, was marred by the death of his father. Bob attended Westtown School, which he credited with changing his life and enabling him to attend college. After graduating from Haverford College, Bob, a staunch pacifist, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 because felt he had to serve his country. He was sent to the Far East as a front line medic doing public information in the Philippines and Japan. The poverty and injustice he encountered there did much to shape his future life. Discharged in 1947, Bob worked for a broad spectrum of peace and progressive causes as an organizer and lobbyist during the next three decades. He was a one of the first organizers of the Powelton Village Development Corporation, which renovated properties in an integrated residential community in West Philadelphia, where he lived with his wife and adopted interracial son. Elected Democratic committeeman in West Philadelphia, he campaigned for Dilworth during the reform years. He opposed the loyalty oath during the McCarthy years, organized large public forums at the Academy of Music during the outbreak of the Korean War and was a lobbyist for the Philadelphia Hospital Council, directing a campaign to win state aid for indigents. Bob was Founding Director and first Executive Secretary of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A life-long Quaker, Bob¹s commitment to equality, peace and the social justice was reflected in his membership on the boards of numerous Friends organizations and progressive initiatives. He had a career in public relations and fund raising, working as a public information officer for Rohm & Haas and several regional planning groups and formed Folwell-Sennott Associates, fund raising consultants to small non-profit agencies. Bob was Adjunct Professor at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, teaching and mentoring many prospective fund-raisers. After living in Philadelphia for 40-plus years, he married Kathleen Pokstefl in 1991 and moved to Wayne, PA. In later years, he put much of his spirit into writing letters, memoirs and family histories. Bob died of cancer on January 10, 2005.
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