Silas Bissell

Silas Bissell (April 27, 1942 – June 15, 2002 Bissell went to the University of Michigan, where he was awarded three Hopwood Awards for poetry. He fell in love with Judith Emily Siff, a New Yorker and they later married. Bissell graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1964 and then went to Syracuse University and graduated with a master's degree in creative writing in 1965.

When Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated and activists stormed Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Silas and Judith joined a Seattle draft resistance group. They were soon drawn to the Weatherman organization.

Underground The Bissells posted the $50,000 in bonds and were planning to face the court in Seattle until, Bissell claims, Weatherman Mark Rudd told them to go underground. Traveling by bus and train, they relocated from Seattle to San Francisco, but were now shunned by fellow Weathermen. They ended up in Boston, where the mounting pressures of hiding finally ate away at the marriage. They divorced in 1970. Bissell was charged with conspiracy to destroy federal property and possession of a bomb in connection to an attempt to destroy the University of Washington ROTC building. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment but was released after only eighteen months in custody. While behind bars, he married Ruth Evan, a school teacher. They had been at high school together in Grand Rapids, and she had written letters to him while he was in prison.

After release After Bissell's release he and Ruth moved back to Eugene, where he became devoted to sculpture and painting. He achieved success, showing in many West Coast galleries. He used the proceeds from the sale of his work to fund human rights work. In 1993, he founded the Campaign for Labor Rights, a nationwide organization fighting sweatshop conditions in factories around the globe, and was the national director for many years. Even when he became semi-paralyzed after special chemotherapy for the cancer that was diagnosed in 2000, Bissell never stopped his work as an artist up until his death.

Silas Trim Bissell died at age 60 in Eugene of cancer of the brain on June 15, 2002.