Background
Stowe was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
Stowe was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
She co-founded Greenpeace. While a college student, she organized and served as the first president of a social workers local of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In 1953, Stowe married Irving Strasmich.
The couple had two children, Robert (born 1955) and Barbara (born 1956).
In 1961, the family moved to New Zealand to avoid supporting the American government"s policies with their taxes. When France started its own nuclear tests in Polynesia, the Stowes relocated to Vancouver, Canada.
In 1968, with Jim and Mary Bohlen, the Stowes founded a group called the Don"t Make a Wave Committee to protest announced United States. nuclear bomb tests on Amchitka Island in Alaska. They chartered a fishing boat named Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace, to sail to the island.
The boat was intercepted by the United States Coast Guard, but the resulting publicity helped bring about the cancellation of the tests.
In 1972, Stowe and the other co-founders changed their group"s name to Greenpeace. In 2005, when Irish rock band U2 played a concert in Vancouver, they invited Stowe, and Bono dedicated the song "Original of the Species" to her. Stowe died in Vancouver at University of British Columbia Hospital on July 23, 2010, at the age of 89.
While not as publicly visible as some other members of Greenpeace, she worked hard as a behind-the-scenes organizer.