Ammon Hennacy

Ammon Hennacy was born on July 24, 1893 in Negley, Ohio. His formal education consisted of one year each at three institutions: Hiram College in Ohio (1913), University of Wisconsin (1914), and Ohio State University (1915). With the outbreak of World War I he refused to register for military service and consequently served two years in the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1931 he engaged in social work in Milwaukee, where he organized one of the first social workers' unions. With the coming of World War II he again refused to register for the draft. He became baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in 1952 by an anarchist priest. Between 1953 and 1961 he was an associate editor of the Catholic Worker. In 1961 he organized and directed the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in remembrance of the martyrdom of Joe Hill. In Utah he was involved in picketing and fasting protests against scheduled executions of condemned prisoners at the State Prison, fasting on various occasions for periods ranging from 12 to 45 consecutive days. In 1965 he married Joan Thomas, and formally left the Catholic Church. From that time on he wished to be known as a non-church Christian. Shortly after the publication of The One-Man Revolution in America, he suffered a heart attack while picketing for Lance and Kelback, two convicted murderers scheduled to be executed. He died six days later, on January 14, 1970. - Wipf and Stock Publishers