Many names were tossed at the night of May 23, as his writing career and restorative justice work were humorously honored with a “roast” at 91¶ÌÊÓÆ”. While most retiring professors of ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s stature and worldwide celebrity are feted with a more standard banquet, a roast more suited both the man and his varied work.

More than 300 attendees agreed, traveling from around the world to honor ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s influence as a reformer, teacher, a mentor, and visionary; to mark his retirement as a full-time faculty member; and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s groundbreaking work, .

The evening also provided an opportunity to support the ongoing work of the , of which Zehr will remain a co-director with friend and colleague . A silent auction of global artifacts, artwork, locally crafted food and libations, and books, along with other donations, also raised about $15,000, not including pledges, for the continued work of the Zehr Institute.

After dinner


Among comedians, a “roast” is a gathering at which a guest of honor is subjected to both praise and good-natured jokes at their expense. Stauffer, dressed in a suit and tie, emceed the evening’s festivities with , a longtime colleague since ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s arrival at the in 1996. Jantzi came more appropriately appareled to the podium in the requested “Howard Zehr-styled formal wear:” boots, tan khakis, a tan shirt, a camera slung about his neck and a Indiana Jones-looking hat.

When queried by Stauffer about his neckwear, Jantzi looked at his floral tie and retorted: “This is a tie that’s as ugly as sin. I tried to get one as ugly as Howard would wear, but this is the best I could do.”

First on the program was a panel of alumni roasters, all of whom remarked in some capacity on their strong and shared personal friendship with Zehr, his sense of humor, and quiet way of inspiring confidence and empowerment. Among them was , MA ‘08, now restorative justice coordinator at the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in Vancouver, Canada, who spoke of becoming ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s student one day and shortly after, accepting an invitation to co-present with Zehr at a conference.

“Howard sees something in you before you see it in yourself and he nurtures it until it comes to fruition,” said , MA ‘99, a 14-year veteran of working federal capital cases who is herself a pioneer of an approach called defense-oriented victim outreach.

The youngest member of the panel, MA ‘13, spoke of the in her native Mexico, between Zehr – in Tamaulipas to present the keynote address at the First National Conference of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms – and poet and victims advocate Javier Sicilia, “two men who share similar bodies and souls.”

MA ‘04, contextualized Zehr with a reference to Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point,” which describes three types of “change makers.” “Howard for me is the consummate connector,” said Malec, citing Zehr’s skills in networking between practitioners and connecting his colleagues and students with exciting opportunities.

MA ‘09, took the microphone in “protest” to argue that the breadth and sheer vivacity of Zehr’s creative contributions in a variety of fields do not render him “the grandfather of restorative justice,” as he’s sometimes referred to, but rather “the Lady Gaga of restorative justice!”

, MA ‘06, a founding member of the nonprofit Latino Initiative on Restorative Justice, spoke movingly of ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s influence on her personal journey from her native Ecuador and her current work as an educator and training of restorative justice in many Latin American countries.

, which focused on the aging body, took the brunt of several spirited jokes from , MA ‘00. Toews is a former student who has written and co-edited .

Guest Roasters

A panel of guest roasters included nine distinguished colleagues, some of whom wrote or provided video greetings: RJ practitioner honored ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s influence in New Zealand, criminologist John Braithwaite sent congratulations from Australia, and ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s longtime friend, Bruce Bainbridge, did the same from the State Correction Institution Graterford, where he is serving a life sentence.

, currently co-director of Mennonite Central Committee‘s Office on Justice and Peacebuilding, proclaimed that she had “30 years of stories” to fit into the next three minutes, speeding through Zehr’s powers of suggestion, his fast pace of speech, and his commitment to well-made coffee.

Actor, director, and playwright Ingrid DeSanctis remembered ,” based on Zehr’s book which received a standing ovation from 500 inmates at Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania.

, a mediator and consultant with a history of teaching in Center for Justice and Peacebuilding programs, proclaimed that he and Zehr shared something that nobody else in the room did: both are alumni of Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, which boasts graduates such as Martin Luther King Jr.

“You carry the mystique of a Morehouse man well,” said Hooker, adding that the “Morehouse man” is “well-read, well-traveled, well-spoken, well-balanced and
” He stopped. “You’ve got to work on well-dressed,” he concluded, to laughter from the crowd.

Kim Workman, director of the New Zealand-based organization Rethinking Crime and Punishment, not only told humorous stories, but played the keyboard and sang an original ditty he called “Ode to Howard.”

The Zehr bobble-head

As the evening drew to a close, ŽÜ±đłó°ù’s family joined in the fun. His wife, Ruby, recalled one of their first dates in college, when Howard invited her to the snack shop to share a Coke because he did not have enough money for two. She was followed by Howard’s brother, Ed Zehr, who reminisced about Howard’s boyhood skills tinkering with electronics and gadgets.

When Zehr assumed the stage after 9 p.m., he was met with a standing ovation. Cracking jokes, he recounted the early days of restorative justice work with Canadian colleague David Worth, announcing their next 50-year plan for the field – expansion to a social movement.

At the end of the night, , director of the and mastermind behind the festivities, presented the honoree with a custom Howard Zehr bobble-head doll.

“Ruby says my memorial service is taken care of, so she won’t need to have one when I die,” Zehr reflected afterwards. “I got off pretty easy overall!”

Zehr was with two friends – Katia Cecilia Ornelas-NĂșñez, a 2013 MA graduate of , and Nuri Nusrat. Suddenly the threesome noticed two men staring intently at Zehr. “We ignored them and began to walk away but they approached us, identifying themselves as journalists,” Zehr recalled in a July 15 posting on .

One of the journalists, Marco Esquivel, explained that someone had phoned their newspaper office to say that the famous writer and human rights activist Javier Sicilia had been spotted in their city. As any good journalist would, Esquivel acted on the news tip. “I brought my camera and my cell phone with me, ready in recording mode, and I start walking the three blocks from where I am to the capitol of Tamaulipas,” he wrote in an article published on July 2 in his newspaper, Hoy Tamaulipas. He continued (translated from Spanish):

From behind I see the Javier Sicilia that I was told
 beard, hat, glasses, and I wondered once more, what is he doing in Ciudad Victoria?

I get closer and I suddenly stop.

I think that is not him – I say to my self – and I walk a little more
 he looks a lot similar, they could even be siblings
 but I think that is not him.

Once next to him, his accent and the language he speaks confirm it to me ‘it is not him.’

The other Sicilia is Dr. Howard Zehr, distinguished professor in restorative justice from 91¶ÌÊÓÆ” located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.

As Zehr explained in his July 15 blog:

Sicilia is a poet, novelist and journalist who became an outspoken human rights activist after his son, along with six other people, was murdered by gang members. In 2011, he was Time Magazine’s as a representative of protestors. A friend of philosopher Ivan Illich, according to he has been a major promoter of Illich’s thought in Mexico. He is also well-grounded in the Catholic social justice tradition and widely-known not only for his protests but for kissing his enemies as well as his friends.

Esquivel’s article  paper had this opening line, “What the heck is Javier Sicilia doing in Ciudad Victoria?” The lead went like this: “Howard Zehr and Javier Sicilia not only share a similar physical appearance. They also – in their own ways – are victims’ advocates.”

Ornelas-NĂșñez got in touch with a friend of hers, Javier HernĂĄndez Valencia, Mexico’s representative to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who knows Sicilia. Valencia helped her arrange a meeting between Zehr and Sicilia on July 7 at the home of Ivan Illich in a village where Sicilia lives outside Mexico City. Ornelas-NĂșñez served as translator and the meeting was video-recorded.

“By the time we said goodbye on the porch overlooking Illich’s garden, even though we don’t speak each other’s language, I felt I had found a kindred spirit and friend,” wrote Zehr in his blog. “I’ve sent him a Spanish version of ,Ìę and I wonder what he will think of it, especially the chapter on biblical justice.”