June A. Willenz
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June Adele Willenz (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Friedenberg; December 17, 1924 – May 3, 2020) was an American military veterans advocate, Executive Director of the
American Veterans Committee Launched in April 2013, the American Veterans Committee (AVC) is a non-profit veterans organization that promotes networking opportunities for US veterans globally. The organization was launched to make it easier for US veterans to connect with v ...
(AVC), and author of ''Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines'' (
Continuum Continuum may refer to: * Continuum (measurement), theories or models that explain gradual transitions from one condition to another without abrupt changes Mathematics * Continuum (set theory), the real line or the corresponding cardinal number ...
, 1983). Willenz also initiated the effort to build the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.


Early life and education

Willenz was born in Brooklyn on December 17, 1924, and grew up there. Her father, Benjamin Friedenberg, worked as a civil engineer and her mother, Sara Friedenberg (née Horowitz), was a housewife. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, she went on to study at
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...
, before transferring to the University of Michigan. There, she earned first a bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1945, and then a master's degree in Philosophy two years later. She subsequently pursued doctoral studies in Philosophy ( ABD) at The New School for Social Research in New York. It was during her studies there that she first met Eric Willenz, a fellow student. They married in 1951, and had two daughters (Pam and Nicole). The couple later divorced in 1968.


Career

Following graduation, Willenz worked at a variety of jobs before joining the AVC. She wrote a column for the '' Stars and Stripes'' newspaper, taught at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland, and directed the research program at the United States Department of Labor's Special Project on Employment of Women Veterans. She became the executive director of the AVC in 1965, a position she held until the committee's dissolution in 2003. When she joined the AVC she was the first and only female head of a veteran's organization. After finding that many minority veterans had been discharged "less-than-honorably" for minor offenses, Willenz began campaigning to raise awareness of the inequities in the system. She developed the first legal aid project for veterans with discharge-related problems. As a result of her advocacy, thousands of Vietnam War veterans eventually had their discharges upgraded to "general" or "honorable" status. Willenz was the first woman to head the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (The Leadership Conference), formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an Umbrella organization, umbrella group of United States, American civil rights interest groups. Org ...
Task Force on Military/Veterans Affairs, and the first to chair a Presidential Subcommittee on Disabled Veterans. She was cited for "outstanding leadership" of the Subcommittee. She organized a conference on the Draft, which encouraged national debate and influenced policy direction. Willenz also advocated for the rights and recognition of women veterans. Her 1983 book, 'Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines'', documented the lives of several women who had served in the military and the impact it had on their lives. It also called attention to the inequality between men's and women's benefits, and the government's neglect of women veterans. Largely in response to the book, Congress held its first hearings on women veterans and the Veterans Administration established a Women Veterans Advisory Committee. Willenz also initiated efforts to create a national memorial to women veterans. Her work in the AVC eventually led to the building of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. For 22 years, Willenz chaired the
World Veterans Federation The World Veterans Federation (WVF) is the world's largest international veteran organisation. The federation consists of 172 veterans organizations from 121 countries representing some 60 million veterans worldwide. It is a humanitarian organisa ...
's Committee on Women, which championed women's rights in peacetime as well as wartime. She represented the Federation at the United Nations, calling the attention of various U.N. agencies to the problems of women in armed conflict. She is credited with helping to increase women's influence in the international arena, as evidenced in United Nations Security Council resolutions "that now seek to include women in peacemaking and peacekeeping activities as well as post-conflict reconstruction strategies."


Death

Willenz died on May 3, 2020, in Bethesda, Maryland. She was 95, and had suffered a heart attack after undergoing emergency hip surgery.


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Willenz, June A. 1924 births 2020 deaths University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni People from Bethesda, Maryland American veterans' rights activists American civil rights activists American women's rights activists 20th-century United States government officials