A dentist? A peace activist?
The Rochester media appeared a very little surprised in the late 1960s that anyone could be both, but, then once more, there was Dr. George McVey of Brighton.
“Rochester Space Has Its Possess Dr. Spock,” headlined the Democrat and Chronicle on Aug. 12, 1968, comparing McVey to Dr. Benjamin Spock, the nationally known pediatrician and opponent of U.S. involvement in the war.
But McVey, who died on June 14, 2022, in Maine at age 94, just two weeks shy of his 95th birthday, and who will be memorialized at Nov. 26 at 10:30 a.m. at Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester, wasn’t just a dentist. And he wasn’t just an activist.
He was a navy veteran, a spouse, a volunteer on behalf of the disenfranchised, the father of 6 daughters and a masters amount swimmer and a swimming official.
“As daughters, we knowledgeable tons of various cycles of my dad’s daily life,” claims McVey’s oldest daughter Pam Babij of Baltimore, who remembers all the things from their property filling up with activists to bicycle excursions to Don & Bob’s on Monroe Avenue for chocolate almond or butter brickle product. (Ordering butter brickle would tie up his tongue a very little, a remnant of a childhood stutter that he had typically prevail over.)
A native of Queens, McVey joined the U.S. Navy out of large faculty at the conclude of Earth War and attended Holy Cross College or university on the GI Monthly bill, graduating in 1950. (Also in his class was basketball excellent Bob Cousy). McVey sooner or later settled in the Rochester place with his initially wife, Patricia, and their household.
They experienced a few extremely youthful daughters when Patricia died of cancer in 1963. McVey, who experienced been in community relations, was in the middle of a occupation shift then, attending dental school at the University of Buffalo.
Just after his wife’s dying, McVey, shaken and reworked by grief, reached out to Philip Berrigan, his Holy Cross classmate, for consul. By this time, Berrigan, and his brother Daniel, also a priest, were being peace activists.
Philip Berrigan set McVey in speak to with men and women at Immaculate Conception Church, a numerous and liberal parish in Rochester’s Corn Hill neighborhood, and McVey so started his have activism.
In his past 12 months of dental university, McVey met Suzanne Martin. “They speedily fell in enjoy,” states Pam Babij. “Her household was aghast she would date someone 12 years older than her with no job and three youngsters.”
The few married in 1966. They had 3 little ones, bringing the range of daughters in the household to six.
“It was the most exciting at any time acquiring babies in the household,” Babij claims. “Sue became our next mother. She raised us. A massive motive Father could do all of his activism is she was at residence with all of the children.”
The dwelling became a meeting floor for all kinds of anti-war preparing. (FBI surveillance groups observing carefully, according to documents later released). Pam remembers sitting down at the leading of the stairs and listen to the strategizing.
At just one issue, the authorities advised that some of the strategizing may perhaps have been about a 1971 plot involving the Berrigans to kidnap Henry Kissinger, then the Countrywide Protection Adviser. The situation in opposition to the Berrigans and other people resulted in a hung jury, conserve for a couple small convictions. It was not retried. McVey, who had not been charged, was convicted of contempt of court right after he refused to testify.
“Though I have practically nothing to be ashamed of, I would have to bear a good load of disgrace if I cooperated with this fishing occasion,” McVey explained in a printed assertion following his conviction, a conviction that was afterwards dismissed on appeal.
As to start with, McVey’s activism hurt his dental apply in downtown Rochester. (He would trip his bicycle to perform be a part of protest gatherings all through the lunch hour.) But he picked up new sufferers, numerous of them connected to liberal will cause. He also donated some of his companies to the needy.
McVey would go to the Seneca Military Depot monthly to stand from nuclear weapons with Veterans for Peace. He was also lively in lots of social justice efforts in Rochester.
Sue McVey died in 2012 at age 72. In early 2020, George McVey, who was working with wellness problems, moved to Orrington, Maine, to be shut to spouse and children.
In addition to Pam Babij, he is survived by his daughters Mimi McVey of Baltimore, Mary McVey, Karen Fussell and Connie McVey, all of Maine, and Amy McVey of Burlington, Vermont.
Amazing Rochesterians
As instructed by Mary Jo Lanphear, the Town of Brighton historian, let us insert George McVey’s name to our list of Impressive Rochesterians.
George McVey (1927-2022): A dentist and a longtime leader of anti-war and social justice activities in the Rochester location for extra than 20 yrs, the Queens indigenous graduated from Bishop Loughlin Memorial Higher University in Brooklyn and joined the U.S. Navy close to the end of Environment War II. He graduated from Holy Cross School in 1950 and the College of Buffalo’s dental university in 1966. Encouraged by his Holy Cross classmate, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, he turned energetic in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Rochester, signing up for with Veterans for Peace. He served as president of Metro-Act, volunteered for yrs at the St. Joseph House of Hospitality and was the co-founder of Niagara District Masters Swimming.
From his house in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Extraordinary Rochester, who we were being, who we are. He can be achieved at [email protected] or create Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454
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