THE ORANGE COUNTY PEACE MOVEMENT: 6 PROFILES

LARRY AGRAN, 41

As mayor of Irvine, Agran is one of but a few elected officials in county also a vocal proponent of peace and nuclear disarmament. Active in Alliance for Survival, he walked precincts for Carol Ann Bradford’s 1984 congressional campaign and founded Local Elected Officials Project, organizing mayors and city council members nationwide against the arms race. “You’re not going to transform the electorate in two years. It’s going to take 10 or 20,” he said.

JEAN BERNSTEIN, 63

Referred to as “Mother Alliance” for her contributions to Alliance for Survival, she has lived in Orange County since 1958, spending much of that time heavily involved in the peace movement. Because many county residents earn livings from the defense industry, Bernstein says peace activists cannot reach them by arguing that defense spending takes dollars from domestic programs, but must stress the moral necessity of peace.

TIM CARPENTER, 27

As a founding member of the Alliance for Survival and a key organizer in last year’s Great Peace March, Carpenter is one of the county’s best known anti-nuclear activists. He has worked on the 1984 congressional campaigns of peace candidates Carol Ann Bradford and Mary Lou Brophy and has helped orchestrate several Costa Mesa Wincon protests. In 1982, Carpenter was arrested while demonstrating at Rockwell International in El Segundo.

MARION PACK, 40

When Pack moved to Orange County from Ohio in 1981, she took a job selling lingerie at May Co. South Coast Plaza. At lunchtime, she would tear off her name tag, grab her clipboard and head out to collect signatures for the nuclear freeze movement. Shortly after her arrival at May Co., Pack quit to become office manager at Alliance for Survival headquarters. Today she is the organization’s executive director and helps organize many of the Alliance’s demonstrations.

THOMAS TIERNEY, 48, AND ELIZABETH TIERNEY

Local activists call this former Air Force officer and his wife the two most active philanthropists-for-peace now donating money in Orange County. Although the peace movement here has yet to develop a large money network, the Tierneys have begun to fill some of the financial gaps here by donating $350,000 to UC Irvine. A $250,000 gift endowed the Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney Chair for Peace Studies, and another $100,000 gift went toward building an international peace research institute. A self-proclaimed “hawk-turned-rational dove,” Thomas Tierney spent 11 years in the military. An active member of Beyond War, Tierney said he favors “getting rid of those (nuclear) bombs.” He also says, “The thing that I usually have the most trouble with is that people feel that anyone that’s for peace is ready to give away America, and that is clearly not the case.”