ED CASEY / HISTORY PROFESSOR

Heart attack claims life
of longtime isle activist

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By Sally Apgar
sapgar@starbulletin.com

Ed Casey, a popular history professor at Leeward Community College and an ardent anti-war activist in the 1960s, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Honolulu home.

Casey, 64, taught full time at Leeward for 31 years before retiring in December 2001 to teach part time and travel.

Friends said yesterday that Casey loved Spanish-American history and often took student groups to Cuba. Friends also said he was a longtime advocate for peace whether in Cuba, Vietnam or Iraq.

They also said that Casey was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers to serve in Central America. He served in Costa Rica for two years.

"He was really a man of peace," said Barbara Polk, his companion and a former provost at Leeward, who met him when the two protested the Reagan administration's war in Central America.

Polk said Casey marched Saturday against the war in Iraq but was unable to finish the march "because he wasn't feeling that well."

Polk said Casey was for "social justice."

"He supported a wide variety of causes. He seemed to support anyone who was working for social justice locally or worldwide, even when he didn't fully agree with their views."

Another close friend, Don Thompson, said, "He was a real radical, yet also very kindly and gentle."

Thompson, who teaches sociology and American studies at Leeward, had known Casey since 1968 when both were members of the Hawaii chapter of the Peace and Freedom Party, a group that protested the Vietnam War.

"His political persuasions didn't matter to people who liked him," said Thompson.

Casey was also active in union issues and helped found the faculty union at Leeward.

Born in Portland, Ore., Casey earned his undergraduate degree at Arizona State and his master's degree in history at Mexico City College.

Casey's immediate family has just arrived in Hawaii, and final service arrangements have not yet been made.