Randy Kehler was one the most compassionate, kind, caring, and decent human beings I have ever known. Even those who disagreed with his politics — and there were many — could not help but like him personally. He was a person who radiated goodness, honesty, respectfulness, and integrity.

Some might say that he achieved few concrete results during his long career as an organizer and activist. We still live in a militaristic society that too frequently sees war as the answer, and we continue to be the world’s largest arms merchant. We still are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, and the Doomsday Clock ticks ever closer to midnight. We still do not have clean and fair elections, and things got worse after the infamous Citizens United decision. At times, Randy described himself as a Don Quixote figure, tilting at windmills and dreaming the impossible dream.

But that is not the whole story. Randy might not have achieved the concrete results he was after, but his actions had enormous ripple effects that penetrated far and wide. More than once, those ripples changed the course of history. Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg once said point blank: “No Randy Kehler, no Pentagon Papers.” His organizing around the nuclear weapons freeze, which included the largest political demonstration in this country’s history, on June 12, 1982, had ripple effects that penetrated the Reagan White House, and Reagan’s nuclear saber-rattling noticeably softened during his second term  — a major shift.  This paved the way for several landmark nuclear arms reduction agreements with the Soviets.  It is not out of place to say, “No Randy Kehler, no INF or START treaties.” We were brought back from the brink.

Randy would have been the first one to admit that his life was not about achieving results. It was about taking a stand. He derived much comfort from this quote by Thomas Merton: “Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.”

I ask myself, why was it that he had these huge ripple effects? I think it was because of the type of person he was. He was a true radical, in the sense of someone who goes to the root of things. He was a person of conscience, a person who listened to that inner voice that told him what was right and wrong. That integrity earned him a certain respect and dignity that was impossible to ignore. It was palpable. It affected Ellsberg profoundly and obviously many others. It affected me. Aware of his own ripple effects, he often said to people, especially to young activists, “Don’t ever, ever assume that anything you do, particularly if it’s an act of conscience, won’t make a difference.” One never knows who might be listening or watching.

He also possessed a keen intelligence that kept him focused on what really mattered. He went straight to the heart of the matter, wherever he trained his attention. I have been in many meetings together with Randy, and one could always count on him to say something truly profound, insightful, and brilliant. He saw things so clearly. His moral compass was finely tuned and always on the mark.

Randy was the main person who brought the legendary peace and civil rights activists Wally and Juanita Nelson here to western Mass. (One could say, “No Randy Kehler, no Nelsons on Woolman Hill.”) They remained lifelong friends, but they also had their disagreements, especially during the seizure of Randy and Betsy’s house in Colrain by the IRS as a consequence of their refusal to pay taxes for war. The Nelsons espoused uncompromising noncooperation, for which they were famous, but Randy saw things somewhat differently, with more nuance. He once wrote a short statement called “Nonviolence is also …” that was meant as a coda to Wally’s own statement on nonviolence, with which Randy totally agreed, but he felt there was more to be said. That additional statement, that “also,” is simply beautiful and is what I call “compassionate nonviolence.”

Compassion was his middle name. Randy had a unique ability to stand by his principles yet also place himself in the shoes of his adversaries, to understand that they also had “a piece of the truth.” It’s so easy for activists, whether nonviolent or not, to say, “I know I’m right and you’re wrong, so to hell with you!” That’s not who Randy Kehler was. He strived to “listen with the ear of his heart,” to listen compassionately and with humility. This is so important, especially in these polarized times, and I will carry this lesson with me to the end of my days.

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It sounds somewhat trite to say so, but Randy was one of my heroes. He was someone I would always look up to, yet at the same time he was very down-to-earth. He took an interest in you, a genuine interest that was not fake. He was the best friend a person could ask for, and he was a person who had many, many best friends.

Aaron Falbel lives in Sunderland and has known Randy Kehler for 32 years. He serves on the steering committee of the Nelson Legacy Project, with which Randy was also associated.