[Dialogue] Dialogue Digest, Vol 159, Issue 2

Tue Jun 3 16:53:14 PDT 2025

Thank you Dick for your In Loving Memory to Linda Alton

I wish to add a note of remembrance from the ToP Community as well.
Remembering the Gift That Linda Alton Was to Our Community

Though Parkinson's disease may have dimmed Linda's light in recent years,
the brilliance of who she was—and the love she poured into building our ToP
community—will shine on forever in each of us she touched.

When Linda left the full-time ICA staff and made Minneapolis her home, she
didn't just relocate—she planted seeds that would grow into something
beautiful. She became the heart of our training and facilitation family,
and I was blessed to be her partner in this work. Together, we poured
ourselves into creating something meaningful: more than 15 Mastering the
Technology of Participation trainings, countless facilitation events, and a
network that became so much more than the sum of its parts.

Linda had this extraordinary gift—she could see potential in everyone she
met. I used to joke that she could recruit anyone to our cause. Put her in
an elevator with a stranger on the eighth floor, and by the ground floor,
they'd be signed up for a course! But it wasn't just her persuasive
charm—it was her genuine belief in people and her infectious passion for
what we were building together.

She was our anchor when storms hit. When the ICA community faced its
darkest hour and the training staff was dismissed, Linda didn't retreat—she
opened her arms wider. She organized meetings to help us find our way
forward. When new trainers and facilitators needed a chance, Linda became
their champion, sharing not just her connections and expertise, but her
generous heart.

How many times did Linda welcome not just me but so many of us into her
home for trainings and meetings? Her table was always set with good food,
great humor, and even better conversation. Those evenings weren't just
about work—they were about friendship, about sharing our dreams and
dilemmas with someone who truly understood. Linda had this way of making
you feel seen, supported, and never alone in the work.

Linda was more than a colleague or ToP Network co-founder (among many) —she
was a mentor to many of the those who Mentor today.  She was a cheerleader
and a friend who believed in the power of bringing people together. And she
contained so many multitudes the Network had to invent a new title - the
ToP Network 'Animator' when it hired her to bring life to it's early
years.  Her legacy lives on in every facilitator she guided, every trainer
she encouraged, and every life touched by the community she helped nurture.

We will carry her spirit forward—that generous, innovative, unstoppable
force for good that was uniquely Linda. She is deeply missed and will be
forever cherished.
Grace and Peace, Marilyn Oyler

*From: *Richard Alton <richard.alton at gmail.com>
*Subject: **[Oe List ...] In Loving Memory of Linda Alton*
*Date: *June 2, 2025 at 18:56:46 GMT-5
*To: *Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>, Colleague
Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>

*In Loving Memory of Linda Alton *
>>
>> Linda Alton’s life was one of courage, conviction, and compassionate
>> service. >From her early days at the University of California,
>> Berkeley—where she earned both her B.A. and M.A. between 1963 and
>> 1970—Linda was a powerful force for change. As editor of the *Berkeley
>> Yearbook* and an active voice in the Free Speech Movement and the
>> anti-Vietnam War resistance, she stood firmly for justice and truth, even
>> when it wasn’t easy.
>>
>> While still a student, Linda journeyed to Harlem to work in storefront
>> schools, helping high school students who had dropped out find their way
>> back to education and hope. It was there she encountered the Ecumenical
>> Institute, whose mission of global community service would soon become her
>> own. In 1970, she joined the Institute’s staff in San Francisco, beginning
>> a lifelong commitment to international development and human dignity.
>>
>> In 1976, with her young daughter Christina by her side, Linda moved to
>> the Philippines to co-direct a USAID-funded community development project
>> with the newly formed Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA). There, she led
>> efforts to support women’s small businesses, empowering families and
>> transforming communities from the ground up.
>>
>> Her journey continued to Kenya, where Linda and her growing
>> family—including her second daughter, Kay, born in Nairobi—devoted
>> themselves to uplifting lives in both urban slums and rural villages.
>> Together with a local staff of 150, she helped shape development
>> initiatives that reached thousands of communities across the country.
>>
>> Later, in Brussels, Belgium, Linda served as Program Director at ICA’s
>> global headquarters, bringing her deep wisdom, compassion, and leadership
>> to an international stage.
>>
>> She moved to Minnesota with her partner Lynne Larsen to create a home for
>> themselves in Minneapolis. She was a lead technical trainer/convenor
>> with Minnesota Technology of Participation up until she retired.
>>
>> Linda’s legacy is not just found in the places she lived or the programs
>> she led—but in the countless lives she touched, the justice she stood for,
>> and the love she gave so freely. Her spirit lives on in the communities she
>> served and in the hearts of all who knew and loved her. (Daughters:
>> Christina & Katherine Alton, Grandson: Wyatt Wren, Wife: Lynne Larsen)
>>
>

-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
United Methodist Net Zero
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?

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-- 
Marilyn Oyler
Partners in Participation
Phoenix, AZ
marilyn.oyler at gmail.com
www.partnersinparticipation.com
602 468 0605 or 602 460 8843 (mobile)
Purchase a sticky wall on www.partnersinparticipation.com
Visit our airbnb https://bit.ly/37HPqqq
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