Stuart Atwood Chase, 64 of Boulder, died Tues., May 20, 2014 at his residence.
Stuart was adopted and grew up in California. He joined the Marines at age 18. He served in Vietnam, an experience which had a profound effect on him. After being honorably discharged from the Marines, he returned to California where he used his VA educational benefits to graduate from Fullerton State College.
After moving to Boulder, Stuart worked for decades as a counselor at the Boulder County Mental Health Center, where he used his skills to help a huge number of people.
Stuart was the vice president of the Boulder chapter of Veterans for Peace. He was also a member of the Boulder County Greens, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, and many other activist groups. Stuart was a kind, generous, and consistent proponent of peace: peace among people and peace between people and the rest of the planet. At the Saturday morning street corner demonstrations for Middle East Peace, Stuart would often take money out of his own pocket to help homeless people who came to him for assistance. Stuart also took part in the June 20th, 2013 founding news conference of the Boulder Coalition for Social and Environmental Responsibility.
Although his final years were physically difficult for him, they never dampened the ardor for peace that burned inside of him. Many of his friends remember watching him limping away in pain after a peace demonstration, but that didn't stop him from showing up regularly to join in actions for a better world.
A gentle giant has left his imprint on all of us.