Gerda Styles

"I give and bequest ... to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs ten thousand dollars ($10,000)."

—Last Will and Testament of Gerda Styles

"She was very, very political, but unfailingly polite," says one of Gerda Styles' friends, also a beneficiary under her will. He added, "She passionately supported the Washington Report. We argued about that. "

There is little that is extraordinary about the life of Gerda Petersen Styles' life, except her unswerving attachment to justice and her deep concern for the defenseless. When she died last spring in New York, she was just short of her 88th birthday.

A nurse by profession, she had come to America nearly 60 years ago from her birthplace in Copenhagen, Denmark. There her father owned and operated a large bakery which for many years supplied the Danish royal family with baked goods. A brother was a Lutheran bishop.

After she arrived in the US, she married an American veteran of the Spanish American War. He died 12 years before her.

Long before her retirement at age 70, Gerda Styles had begun to write letters of praise or complaint to government officials. After her retirement, she wrote regularly to editors and officials at various levels of government, including the governor of New York.

In addition to her political causes, and a love of plants and nature, she was deeply concerned about animal welfare. Although she was an invalid for the final six years of her life, she nevertheless pursued her letter writing.

When Gerda Styles realized last year that she hadn't much longer to live, she prepared the will benefiting the Washington Report, the Fund for Animals, and other organizations and individuals. For this magazine, the bequest could not have come at a better time, in terms both of needs and opportunities.

It will help the publishers continue making what contributions they can not only to the immediate goal of lasting peace with justice in the Middle East, but also to long-term improved mutual understanding between Americans and Middle Easterners in the years to come. With gratitude and humility, this issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is dedicated to the memory of Gerda Petersen Styles, of Copenhagen and of New York.

A.I.K.