Martha Whitaker Dresher, a loving and gracious resident of Pacific Palisades for 52 years, died on December 26 at the age of 96. She resided at AgeSong senior living community in Emeryville, California, the last six months of her life. Born on September 2, 1914, in Tampa, Florida, Martha attended Florida State University and graduated from Yale University with a degree in political science. She met her husband, mathematician Melvin Dresher, while at Yale and they were married in 1936. After graduation, the Dreshers moved to Washington, D.C., where Martha worked for the Raw Materials Board, a group of representatives from the U.S., Canada and England who distributed materials to the Allies during World War II. In 1947, after the birth of their daughter Olivia, the Dreshers moved to Los Angeles, where their son Paul was born. They ultimately settled in Pacific Palisades on Las Pulgas Road in 1958. Throughout her adult life, Martha was an activist for progressive causes involving peace, justice and human and animal rights. During the Vietnam War, she participated in many anti-war marches and rallies. In the 1980s she joined with the organizing group of the California Nuclear Weapons Freeze Initiative. In 2002, shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the group changed its name and became Palisadians for Peace, dedicated to preventing and then opposing the Iraq war. Martha opened her home to Palisadians for Peace for its monthly meetings and committee work. She could be seen each week at the Palisadians for Peace table at the Sunday farmers’ market on Swarthmore, passing out literature, gathering signatures for various petitions and engaging in conversation with passersby interested in the peace movement. She also participated in the peace vigil held on Thursday nights at the corner of Swarthmore and Sunset, sitting in her camp chair surrounded by fellow activists. For many years Martha worked as a poll worker during elections at the voting station in Marquez Elementary School. In recent years, she worked behind the scenes for the counter-military recruitment work that Palisadians for Peace supports at L.A.-area high schools targeted by military recruiters. The purpose is to help protect students from aggressive recruiters by informing them about the realities of military enlistment and providing them with informational pamphlets and ”opt-out’ forms. Martha was not able to go to the schools, but she spent countless hours sorting, folding and inserting the opt-out forms in the pamphlets to be passed out to students and parents. She was always eager to hear about the encounters the group had with the students. Martha was very successful in persuading people to consider her devotion to the causes she supported. Her infinite kindness and loving acceptance, even of those who disagreed with her, helped win others over. Her smile and pleasant way of speaking melted all hearts. She had a great love and appreciation for animals. She took pleasure in feeding and watching the birds and squirrels in her yard each day and was a vegan for more than 30 years, A beautiful woman, Martha had a keen appreciation of the arts and theater. She maintained a large library on progressive and humane interests. Both an incurable optimist and realistic in her goals, Martha never allowed pragmatism to compromise her beliefs. She was fond of the quotation from Gandhi, ‘We must be the change we wish to see in the world,’ to which she added, ‘If there is ever going to be a change, it has to come from us.’ Martha was predeceased by her husband, Melvin, in 1992. She is survived by her daughter, Olivia Dresher, of Seattle; her son, Paul Dresher (wife Philippa Kelly and son Cole) of Berkeley; and her sister Sue Whitaker McNevin and her brother Charles Clarence Whitaker Jr., both of Tampa, Florida. A memorial celebration of her life will be held in Pacific Palisades later in the spring.
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