A legendary University of Nevada graduate who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War is being honored by the University of California in the spirit of new generations speaking out for democracy today.

Robert Hale Merriman, Class of 1932, commanded Americans and volunteers from other English-language countries in the global struggle to avert what turned out to be an inevitable World War II, killing millions.

From ivy-covered campuses to a war zone

The plaque to be installed on the Berkeley campus.

Merriman married his college sweetheart, Marion Stone, on graduation day after a four-year courtship of iconic collegiate life. He was business manager of the student newspaper Nevada Sagebrush and a leader in the ROTC. She was queen of the military ball. He joined Sigma Nu fraternity, she Gamma Phi Beta sorority. He was 19, she 18 when they first met on the tiny campus in autumn of 1928.

They moved from sagebrush Nevada to grassy slopes of Berkeley’s University of California where he began graduate studies in economics. Now, a memorial to Merriman is planned on the Berkeley campus.

This Merriman dedication is central to a program including a professional development workshop for teachers and students on teaching the Spanish Civil War and organized talks on the rising tide of fascism today.

Merriman expanded his studies in 1934 with a scholarship to examine agricultural and political shifts in the Soviet Union. When Europe was alarmed by Hitler and Mussolini supporting Franco fascism in Spain, Merriman joined volunteers in 1937 from 52 countries to fight for the democratically elected Spanish Republic.

The American volunteers did so illegally because the United States had joined Britain and France in a neutrality act that Germany and Italy then violated by sending troops and planes to back Franco.

Inspiration for Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, covering the war for Life Magazine and American newspapers, modeled his fictional hero Robert Jordan in the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” after Robert Merriman, according to historical researchers.

Robert and Marion on their wedding day.

Hemingway wrote in detail of Merriman’s command in the trenches, olive grove hills and machine gun-riddled churches.

Marion violated the neutrality act by making her way to war-torn Spain to be with her husband after he was wounded. She tried to talk him into leaving the war for his safety, but he was committed. She put on the uniform of the American volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the only American woman to so serve.

As the war worsened, Merriman asked his wife to return to America and alert the country of the then predictable World War II that would follow if Hitler and Mussolini were not stopped in Spain.

Marion spoke out across America, including at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Reno, in speeches from New York to Los Angeles. She joined Hollywood fundraisers to rally support for the Spanish Republic.

She was devastated in April 1938 by elusive battlefield reports that her husband was missing in action in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain.

After months of false reports, she eventually accepted that Bob was lost in the battlefield mists of the Spanish earth.

The bell continues to toll

Robert Hale Merriman’s memorial plaque at the University of California, Berkeley.

Merriman’s name had appeared in many books about the Spanish Civil War, including volumes read by University of Nevada Chancellor Neil Humphrey. He suggested to Robert Laxalt, director of the University of Nevada Press, that there might be a book about Merriman himself. Laxalt asked me to look into it. I contacted Marion in 1981 at her home in Palo Alto and together we wrote the book to tell the story.

The University of Nevada Press published “American Commander in Spain: Robert Hale Merriman and Abraham Lincoln Brigade” in 1986.

The New York Times declared the book “a priceless addition to Spanish Civil War literature.”

The Washington Post called it “a striking portrait of an intellectual who displayed in dangerous action, not only exemplary courage, but a talent for command.”

The bell that tolled for Hemingway in Spain and took Robert Hale Merriman’s life rings today with new generations fighting for democracy around the world and here at home in our American elections.

The unveiling of the Robert H. Merriman Memorial Plaque is set for Friday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. on the Doe Memorial Library Terrace at the University of California, Berkley campus. A reception will follow from 3–5 p.m. in the Morrison Library.

Warren Lerude is emeritus professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada in Reno and a longtime Nevada newspaperman and author