Fundraiser in Berkeley for Robert Merriman Monument on Campus
The monument at Corbera (Catalonia).
On April 29, members of the San Francisco Bay Area ALBA community joined staff, faculty, and students at UC Berkeley to celebrate Robert Hale Merriman, first commander of the Lincoln Brigade, in the beautiful Morrison Library on the Berkeley campus, where Merriman studied while a graduate student in economics. The gathering served to raise funds for the installation of a memorial plaque on the campus, a gift from the DIDPATRI research group at the University of Barcelona, who placed a matching plaque in Corbera d’Ebre, where Merriman disappeared in early April 1938. Speakers included Linda Lustig, daughter of volunteer Dave Smith and a driving force behind the San Francisco monument, Adam Hochschild, historian, journalist and member of the ALBA Honorary Board, Estelle Tarica, chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and special guest Christopher Stone, nephew of Merriman’s widow, Marion Stone Merriman Wachtel, who joined Merriman in Spain as the only American woman in uniform with the Lincolns. For more information or to make a donation, visit crowdfund.berkeley.edu/merriman, or email rhmplaque@gmail.com. Here is a photo gallery of the event (photos by Richard Bermack):
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- Linda Lustig. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Peter Glazer. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Donna Southard, Joel Izzy and Michael Sullivan. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Randy Craig. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Rachel Steiner and Michael Sullivan. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Claude Potts. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Chris Stone. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Event put on by the Spanish & Portuguese Department and ALB to raise money for a Paque honoring Robert Merriman
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- The gathering in the Morrison Room. Photo Richard Bermack
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- Adam Hochschild. Photo Richard Bermack
