We were deeply saddened by the loss of Bill Buscombe on March 13. Bill and Royal and their four youngest children moved from Australia to Evanston in 1968 when Bill came to Northwestern as a professor of astronomy.  Since then the Buscombes have enriched the life of the Meeting in countless ways. Bill served as recorder for the meeting for many years. His most important contribution was the messages he shared during meetings for worship. A memorial service will be held at the meetinghouse on May 10.
 

McHenry County Meeting
by Marcia Nelson

Friends here have been engaged in a wide variety of peace promoting activities. Alice and Bill Howenstine, Penny Cichucki and John Hackman traveled to Washington, D.C., for the national march held Jan. 18.  John Hackman, Dick Taber and Penny Cichucki have been active with the McHenry County Peace Group, which has conducted area peace vigils and a teach-in at McHenry County College. The Crystal Lake Montessori School, operated by Penny Cichucki who established it with her husband John, is an international peace site, with a curriculum that emphasizes world citizenship. For her work, Penny Cichucki was honored in 2002 with the Turning Point Peace and Justice Award.  Mark McGinnis was trained through American Friends Service Committee and is now a registered draft counselor with the Center on Conscience and War (formerly the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors, www.nisbco.org) Marcia Nelson spoke about Friends peace testimony at an interfaith solidarity gathering organized by the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions at the Islamic Foundation of Villa Park, following a vandalism incident at the