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Pat Montandon - 1999
| Pat
Montandon has always lived on the cutting edge of life. The seventh
child born to two Texas ministers, Pat came to San Francisco and
quickly made her name known by giving imaginative parties. She was listed as one of the top
hostesses in the nation by Esquire
magazine and went on to a successful career in television and radio.
Her first book, "How To Be A Party Girl", was published by McGraw Hill. "The Intruders", her second
book, was published by Coward McCann Geoghegan, and the paperback by Fawcett. "Making Friends",
her third book, was the first Soviet/American co- publication by Raduga in St. Petersburg, Russia and Henry Holt in the United
States.
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Pat Montandon and the Peace
Club kids of Beresford Weeks Northern Light School in Oakland,
CA. | A columnist for the San
Francisco Examiner and a talk
show host on an ABC affiliate, Pat resigned in 1982 to create a non-profit foundation, "Children As The
Peacemakers." To give children a
voice in their own future, she has made thirty-four trips around the
world with young children, meeting with twenty-six world leaders.
She has received the United Nations Peace Messenger award and was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, 1988, and 1989. A
documentary about her work began airing on PBS in 2001.
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Lighting a candle at an
opening in the Berlin Wall the day the Wall began to come
down. |
Pat was the first:
- To bring a Soviet child to the United
States on a peace mission, a trip in memory of Samantha Smith.
This action made headlines around the world. She appeared on the
Today Show, CBS News, CNN, The Tonight Show, and many
others.
- To create a Soviet/American joint
venture book.
- To get a Soviet citizen into Hong
Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Again this action created
headlines.
- To launch Peace Clubs internationally
with a curriculum designed to foster a generation of youth with
peacemaking skills.
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Interviewing Mother Teresa on
the subject of forgiveness at the Missionaries of Charity in
Calcutta, India. | In 1986, Pat created "The Banner Of Hope", red
silk memorial with the names and ages of children killed in war
written on it in black. A mile long, it was featured on The Dan
Rather Evening News, in People Magazine, and has been shown in
thirty countries as well as the United Nations. The Banner was first
presented to six thousand people in the Kremlin, bringing Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev to tears. In August of 1999, The Banner
of Hope was unfurled on The Great Wall Of China.
In the 70's, Pat founded "The Name
Choice Center" to inform women of their right to retain their name
after marriage. In 1979 she originated the Napa Valley Wine Auction,
the most successful wine auction in the world.
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Addressing an International
Women's Congress in the Kremlin. President Gorbachev was moved
to tears when the Banner of Hope was presented.
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the eighties, Pat initiated the International Children's Peace
Prize, bringing children from forty countries to the United States
for ceremonies honoring them. Disneyland hosted the peace prize
ceremony in Anaheim, California in 1987.
In 1993, Pat created the "California
Banner of Hope", a one-half mile of white silk with the names of
8,000 children murdered in California are written on it in black.
This work has been used in Washington DC at a conference on gang
violence, hung in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral for a month, St.
Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, the rotunda of the federal
building in Oakland, CA. and used as the centerpiece in marches
protesting gun violence.
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Premier of China in the Great
Hall of the People |
Pat is the mother of Sean Patrick
Wilsey, a writer living in Manhattan. A columnist for
the San Francisco
Examiner she has taken a leave
of absence to complete four books; "Celebrities and Their Angels",
"Whispers From God", "Recipes For Conversation", and "The Ageless
Woman".
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At Hiroshima at the statue of
Sadako. | |
