28 ICSA TODAY
Profile On...
Edited by Mary O’Connell
Arthur Alexander Dole, PhD, ABPP, pacifist, scholar, and
independent thinker, died peacefully at home on May 16, 2017.
Art’s intelligence, humor, and passion for nonviolence defined
his long and varied life. Born in San Francisco on October 25,
1917, he has been affectionately known as Danny, Red, Old
Dole, Art… He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marjorie Welsh
Dole two sons, Peter and Steven Dole, and a daughter, Barbara
Dole Acosta. His six grandchildren are Isaac, Nathan, and Sam
Dole, Alyssa Dole Witeof, and Margarita and Gabriela Dole
Acosta. Two great grandchildren are Maya and Caroline Dole.
Dr. Steve Eichel, President of ICSA, captured the feelings of many
who knew Dr. Dole: “Arthur Alexander Dole, the brilliant retired
professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who is responsible
for bringing me to Philadelphia to study the psychology of cults
and cultic processes, has passed away. He was 99. Art was the
most gentle and humanistic soul I’ve ever met. This is a great
loss… and his was a life incredibly well-lived. RIP, Art. You have
touched more people than I could ever count. My deepest
condolences to his amazing family, especially his daughter,
Barbara. Your flame may be extinguished, but your light
remains forever. ”
—from “People Profiles,” ICSA website
I met Arthur Dole around 2002 at the home of Bill and Lorna Goldberg
in New Jersey. He would have been about 84 years old at the time.
The occasion was an ICSA-related meeting. Before the meeting began,
he introduced himself, and, knowing I was a former member of a
destructive group, kindly inquired how things were going for me.
I was newly exited, green, raw-nerved: so awkward in social encounters
that they were sometimes excruciating. I shared with this attentive and
sympathetic listener the difficulty of Monday-morning conversations
at work when, it seemed, everyone else freely shared their weekend
exploits. I could never share mine because revealing anything about my
life meant revealing I was a former cult member, and that would have
been a real problem at the job.
In a few words, he gave comfort and excellent advice, assuring me
that it would get better and that I just needed to be patient. Little did
I know I was speaking to the Arthur Dole: retired professor from an Ivy
League college, bastion of ICSA, a book author, and so on. There was
nothing self-important in his demeanor. Even less did I suspect that he
was uniquely qualified to assist in this particular problem because he
himself had wrestled long ago with the issue of exactly what to say in
social situations where the waters were uncharted.
In 1942, when the Second World War raged, Arthur Dole was just 25.
After careful consideration and serious discussions with teachers,
religious advisers, and friends, he worked out his own unique position.
He declared himself a conscientious objector. He decided, in his
integrity, “I would not serve in the military, but I was willing to do work
of national importance as a civilian. I thought such effort should be
overseas and physically dangerous.” He was sentenced to 5 years in
federal prison.
His experiences and thoughts about this period of his life are recorded
in a fascinating memoir he contributed to a book called a few small
candles: war resisters of world war ii tell their stories. Here, he writes
without bitterness or regret over lost time. In fact, he does not see the
time of his incarceration as lost time. It is during this period, he notes,
that he developed self-control, learned much about life and people,
and generally grew up. As well, he was able to further his interest in the
field of psychology, where he would spend most of his teaching years.
He relates how he considered the way in which he would approach
social interactions:
What I did find difficult to work through was how best to
relate to those who did not share my views. …I reasoned
that I would not express my opinion unless asked directly. I
had to figure out satisfactory reactions to certain situations:
stand for national anthem (yes), buy war bonds (no), pay war
taxes (yes), hang out with guys in uniform (sure), volunteer
to test diets and extreme heat and cold with results that may
benefit our military (yes), express opinion on bombing of
Dresden (not unless asked), and so on.
Arthur eventually returned to Antioch College and received his degree,
later earning a PhD from Ohio State. He married Marjorie Welsh, a
research microbiologist. In a self-published book he penned years later,
Senior Papers, he writes with wonderfully wry humor:
Margaret Welsh [Arthur’s mother-in-law] was very different
from Harvey in her response to our possible marriage. She
was smart, practical, tough. I imagined her inner dialogue:
He’s a bit of a pinko idealist, but at least his mother’s a
Republican… He has no money and no job. Marjorie’s going
to have to support him for years while he’s working on his
doctorate… She does seem to like him, but why didn’t she
choose a nice Navy Lieutenant?
Parenthetically, by the time she reached her 80s, she had
decided that our marriage would last.
Their marriage did last—68 years, and Arthur, about whom it is
doubtful that his future mother-in-law actually had any doubts (he
had already saved $1,000—a great deal of money at the time—before
their marriage), did secure gainful employment. He served on the
faculty of the University of Hawaii for 15 years, at Teacher’s College
Columbia University for one year, and at the University of Pennsylvania
for 25 years in the Psychology in Education department. There, he was
inducted into the 25-Year Club for those professors who had taught for
25 years or more.
It was when his daughter, Barbara, was recruited into the Unification
Church that he and his wife made contact with other concerned family
members in the Philadelphia area. They managed to get their daughter
out of the church. Over the years, Arthur served in various capacities
in ICSA (first called the American Family Foundation): as Treasurer, as
Director, and on the Board of Directors, finding time, somehow, to
conduct numerous research studies, present papers at professional
meetings, publish more than a hundred research papers, write many
articles, and contribute a chapter to The Psychology of Terrorism, which
is now used at several schools as a reference work. In 2010, he was
given the Herbert C. Rosedale Award in recognition of leadership in the
effort to preserve and protect individual freedom.
Arthur Dole was a teacher for 41 years of his life. For cult survivors who
have lost time from their lives, it may be that his greatest lesson, and the
most comforting encouragement he gives, is the example he set with
his own life: Find your true self and live it long and full and out loud. n
Arthur A. Dole
Profile On...
Edited by Mary O’Connell
Arthur Alexander Dole, PhD, ABPP, pacifist, scholar, and
independent thinker, died peacefully at home on May 16, 2017.
Art’s intelligence, humor, and passion for nonviolence defined
his long and varied life. Born in San Francisco on October 25,
1917, he has been affectionately known as Danny, Red, Old
Dole, Art… He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marjorie Welsh
Dole two sons, Peter and Steven Dole, and a daughter, Barbara
Dole Acosta. His six grandchildren are Isaac, Nathan, and Sam
Dole, Alyssa Dole Witeof, and Margarita and Gabriela Dole
Acosta. Two great grandchildren are Maya and Caroline Dole.
Dr. Steve Eichel, President of ICSA, captured the feelings of many
who knew Dr. Dole: “Arthur Alexander Dole, the brilliant retired
professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who is responsible
for bringing me to Philadelphia to study the psychology of cults
and cultic processes, has passed away. He was 99. Art was the
most gentle and humanistic soul I’ve ever met. This is a great
loss… and his was a life incredibly well-lived. RIP, Art. You have
touched more people than I could ever count. My deepest
condolences to his amazing family, especially his daughter,
Barbara. Your flame may be extinguished, but your light
remains forever. ”
—from “People Profiles,” ICSA website
I met Arthur Dole around 2002 at the home of Bill and Lorna Goldberg
in New Jersey. He would have been about 84 years old at the time.
The occasion was an ICSA-related meeting. Before the meeting began,
he introduced himself, and, knowing I was a former member of a
destructive group, kindly inquired how things were going for me.
I was newly exited, green, raw-nerved: so awkward in social encounters
that they were sometimes excruciating. I shared with this attentive and
sympathetic listener the difficulty of Monday-morning conversations
at work when, it seemed, everyone else freely shared their weekend
exploits. I could never share mine because revealing anything about my
life meant revealing I was a former cult member, and that would have
been a real problem at the job.
In a few words, he gave comfort and excellent advice, assuring me
that it would get better and that I just needed to be patient. Little did
I know I was speaking to the Arthur Dole: retired professor from an Ivy
League college, bastion of ICSA, a book author, and so on. There was
nothing self-important in his demeanor. Even less did I suspect that he
was uniquely qualified to assist in this particular problem because he
himself had wrestled long ago with the issue of exactly what to say in
social situations where the waters were uncharted.
In 1942, when the Second World War raged, Arthur Dole was just 25.
After careful consideration and serious discussions with teachers,
religious advisers, and friends, he worked out his own unique position.
He declared himself a conscientious objector. He decided, in his
integrity, “I would not serve in the military, but I was willing to do work
of national importance as a civilian. I thought such effort should be
overseas and physically dangerous.” He was sentenced to 5 years in
federal prison.
His experiences and thoughts about this period of his life are recorded
in a fascinating memoir he contributed to a book called a few small
candles: war resisters of world war ii tell their stories. Here, he writes
without bitterness or regret over lost time. In fact, he does not see the
time of his incarceration as lost time. It is during this period, he notes,
that he developed self-control, learned much about life and people,
and generally grew up. As well, he was able to further his interest in the
field of psychology, where he would spend most of his teaching years.
He relates how he considered the way in which he would approach
social interactions:
What I did find difficult to work through was how best to
relate to those who did not share my views. …I reasoned
that I would not express my opinion unless asked directly. I
had to figure out satisfactory reactions to certain situations:
stand for national anthem (yes), buy war bonds (no), pay war
taxes (yes), hang out with guys in uniform (sure), volunteer
to test diets and extreme heat and cold with results that may
benefit our military (yes), express opinion on bombing of
Dresden (not unless asked), and so on.
Arthur eventually returned to Antioch College and received his degree,
later earning a PhD from Ohio State. He married Marjorie Welsh, a
research microbiologist. In a self-published book he penned years later,
Senior Papers, he writes with wonderfully wry humor:
Margaret Welsh [Arthur’s mother-in-law] was very different
from Harvey in her response to our possible marriage. She
was smart, practical, tough. I imagined her inner dialogue:
He’s a bit of a pinko idealist, but at least his mother’s a
Republican… He has no money and no job. Marjorie’s going
to have to support him for years while he’s working on his
doctorate… She does seem to like him, but why didn’t she
choose a nice Navy Lieutenant?
Parenthetically, by the time she reached her 80s, she had
decided that our marriage would last.
Their marriage did last—68 years, and Arthur, about whom it is
doubtful that his future mother-in-law actually had any doubts (he
had already saved $1,000—a great deal of money at the time—before
their marriage), did secure gainful employment. He served on the
faculty of the University of Hawaii for 15 years, at Teacher’s College
Columbia University for one year, and at the University of Pennsylvania
for 25 years in the Psychology in Education department. There, he was
inducted into the 25-Year Club for those professors who had taught for
25 years or more.
It was when his daughter, Barbara, was recruited into the Unification
Church that he and his wife made contact with other concerned family
members in the Philadelphia area. They managed to get their daughter
out of the church. Over the years, Arthur served in various capacities
in ICSA (first called the American Family Foundation): as Treasurer, as
Director, and on the Board of Directors, finding time, somehow, to
conduct numerous research studies, present papers at professional
meetings, publish more than a hundred research papers, write many
articles, and contribute a chapter to The Psychology of Terrorism, which
is now used at several schools as a reference work. In 2010, he was
given the Herbert C. Rosedale Award in recognition of leadership in the
effort to preserve and protect individual freedom.
Arthur Dole was a teacher for 41 years of his life. For cult survivors who
have lost time from their lives, it may be that his greatest lesson, and the
most comforting encouragement he gives, is the example he set with
his own life: Find your true self and live it long and full and out loud. n
Arthur A. Dole
