Lew Ayres

Re the passing of Lew Ayres, Dec. 31: He and I served together in the 36th Evacuation Hospital from 1943 to the end of the war.

Although a conscientious objector, he saw more action than many an infantry soldier, participating in three D-Day invasions including Leyte Gulf. (MacArthur: “I have returned.”) We had many Japanese prisoners of war in our field hospital at Palo, Leyte, who were in terrible physical condition. Lew was the only one who tended to them and showed sympathy and compassion to the enemy, thus practicing what he preached.

I remember fondly our discussions on religion and philosophy. When Roosevelt died in April of 1945, just shortly before the German surrender, he said to me: “Like Moses, he saw the Promised Land but never entered it.”

K.H. KENT MD

Los Angeles

* Ayres was not only a man of peace and religious faith, but a man of action. The article mentioned his production of “Altars of the World.” He also established the Congress for Universal Religious Exchange (CURE).

In July 1959 he sent me a letter describing CURE. In his words, “CURE is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the establishment of a permanent forum of all faiths . . . to enable leaders and representatives of the world’s great religions to meet, discuss and submit opinions upon any or all the urgent problems facing mankind. . . .”

I don’t know how much of his dream of establishing global peace based on religious principles he was able to accomplish, but the need for such an effort still exists. Let us pay homage to this man of peace, faith, conviction and action.

ERIK RHODES

Tarzana