PEACE HOUSE DIRECTOR:
Nathaniel Batchelder
Nathaniel Batchelder was born to English teacher parents who provided a stimulating household where reading and thoughtful pursuits were encouraged.
Batch spent his high school year as an AFS exchange student, living with a family in Germany, going to a German high school. After two years at Williams College, he enlisted in the US Army to be trained as a surgical technician. He served three years in Army hospitals, including 14 months in Vietnam (‘68/’69). He says, “As a surgical technician, I never fired a weapon in Vietnam, and nobody ever shot at me, but we did surgery every day on wounded American, South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, soldiers and civilians. That’s where I became a peace activist.”
After an honorable discharge from the Army, Batch joined his parents in Oklahoma City, where he attended Oklahoma City University, and attained a BA in Biology, in 1972.
Batch held jobs in Public Education and Publicity for the Omniplex Science Museum and Oklahoma City Zoo, before becoming, in 1985, a volunteer with the Sisters of Benedict at the Benedictine Peace House.
There, Batch found his calling, working full-time for justice and peace. In 1990, the Sisters of Benedict elected to devote full time to building their Benedictine Monastery and Retreat Center in Piedmont, OK, so Batch became the full-time Director at the Peace House, a position he still holds today.
The Peace House is an education and advocacy center for a wide variety of justice and peace issues, including human rights, economic justice, environmental sustainability, nonviolence, and peace. The Oklahoma Peace Strategy Newspaper has been in publication since 1986.
Regular and frequent letters to the editor, Op-Ed pieces, and editorials published in the Daily Oklahoman, smaller newspapers around the state, and national publications has made Batch and the Peace House widely known and recognized.
During the 1980s, Peace House work centered around the nuclear arms race and US involvement in the civil strife in Central America. Through the 1990s, Peace House work expanded to include hunger and poverty advocacy through RESULTS and Bread For the World. Civil Rights continued to be a focus as Batch worked with the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Coalition, the Latino Community Development Organization, Native American Indian groups, and emerging gay rights groups.
The Peace House developed and maintains a strong relationship with “Pastors For Peace” which annually sends mission caravans of humanitarian aid to Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Zapatista movement in Mexico. The Peace House is affiliated with numerous national groups, including PEACE ACTION, but is funded entirely through contributions from individuals and a small number of organizations and houses of worship.
Batch’s work for human rights, including founding and Chairing for ten years the Central Oklahoma Human Rights Alliance (COHRA), earned for him the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission’s annual human rights award in December, 2007.
With Conna Wilkinson, Batch and the Peace House have founded the “Peace Education Institute” which generates public education programs for people of all ages, and summer peace camps for children and youths. While the Peace House has 501(c)4 status, permitting advocacy and lobbying on political issues, the Peace Education Institute may receive tax-deductible contributions, serving the educational missions of both institutions.
