Korean War veteran Stan Levin remembered for his tireless activism

Stan Levin, a Korean War veteran who spent the later years of his life as a passionate anti-war activist and helping San Diego’s homeless population, passed away Jan. 8 at a local hospital. He was 96.

The longtime San Diegan worked as an acrobat, in airplane manufacturing, as a schoolteacher and in the real estate industry. But he became best known for his volunteer work with San Diego Veterans for Peace, a vocation that began around his 80th birthday in 2010. He participated in demonstrations, protested at the Miramar air shows, spoke at public events and wrote many essays and letters to the editor that were published in this and other local newspapers and on news sites.

Levin’s daughter Annie Revel said her father loved talking to people on virtually any topic, but over the past 20 years he increasingly became an outspoken anti-war activist.

“He was opinionated and very engaged in life,” Revel said. “He always had a twinkle in his eye and he had a great sense of fun. He was very curious and inquisitive and always learning.”

In 2013, the U-T published a fiery letter to the editor from Levin where he railed agains the “killer drones” made in the U.S. and sold overseas, writing: “If we who lay claim to high ideals are unable to force a stop to this madness, we are complicit in it, and almost certainly we will one day become the targets.”

It was also through his work with Veterans for Peace that Levin found his final calling, serving in the group’s Compassion Campaign, which was created in 2011 to aid the high number of unsheltered veterans living on downtown San Diego streets.

Several nights each month, Levin would join fellow veteran Gilbert Field, the local chapter’s director of communications, in patrolling the streets and handing out free sleeping bags, socks and snacks to any homeless men and women they found sleeping on the sidewalks.

Levin told the U-T in a 2018 interview that he felt an intuitive connection with the people he met on the streets. As a boy growing up in Philadelphia, he endured extreme hardship. And his combat experiences in Korea left him with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, something he saw in many of the homeless people he met.

“Every night I go out, I get the same good feeling,” he said. “It’s extremely rewarding and I feel like a made man afterward.”

Field said Levin became the chapter’s most active member in the Compassion Campaign and was responsible for handing out more than one-third of the 6,000 sleeping bags the group has distributed over the past 15 years. For many years, Levin went on every single distribution trip. Then, as his health and mobility declined, he served as a ride-along, cheering on colleagues from his car seat. His last trip was in 2023 at age 94.

“The San Diego Veterans For Peace will miss Stan’s smiling face, his energy, his kindness and care for others, and his belief in peace,” Field said, in a statement on behalf of the organization.

In 2023, Levin wrote about his Compassion Campaign experience in an essay published in the Union-Tribune, saying: “What do I have to say to vociferous critics who find themselves at odds with those of us who are making some effort towards resolving the unenviable plight of our human brothers and sisters on the street and extending sympathy and love for those without a place to call home? Just have a heart. Please.”

Levin was born on Sept. 6, 1929, in Philadelphia, where he started his working life as part of an acrobatic duo who performed in burlesque shows and nightclubs. When his partner bowed out, Levin joined the Navy at age 21. That was in 1950, the year the U.S. entered the Korean War.

He served as a sonarman 2nd class on a small ship stationed six miles off the coast of North Korea. In 1951, he was assigned to Operation Strangle, a mission to disrupt the supply chain of weapons arriving from China. The death and casualty toll on the nightly commando boat raids was so high and their efforts so futile, Levin told the U-T in 2018 that he couldn’t bring himself to talk about his combat experiences for nearly 50 years.

“There were no good times in Korea. Korea was really bad. A lot of people died for nothing. In all wars they die for nothing. They die for corporations,” Levin said in a 2021 video interview for the World Council of Churches.

After the war, Levin met his wife, Stelle, at a USO event in San Diego. To impress her mom on the day they met, he walked into their home on his hands. They wed on Aug. 3, 1952, and in 1959 they purchased the Serra Mesa home where they raised three children and she still lives.

After leaving the Navy in 1954, Levin worked for Convair where he wired airplanes. Then after earning his college degree, he spent 17 years as a schoolteacher at Wegeforth and Johnson Elementary schools in San Diego. In 1969, he received a national Valley Forge Teachers Medal for founding a traveling verse choir of mostly Black grade-schoolers ages 9 to 11 who performed patriotic songs and poems.

Later he spent 17 years selling real estate and about 25 years as a real estate contractor. He was also a craftsman, who built from scratch a small house, a small airplane, kayaks and a 30-foot trimaran boat that he named Joie de Vivre, reflecting his own joy for living.

Levin is survived by Stelle, his wife of 73 years, their two daughters, Annie Revel and Laurie Hagans, son-in-law Tee Hagans, and grandchildren Dani Levin and Terence Hagans II. He was pre-deceased by their son David, who died in 1991.

The family has yet to announce memorial services for Levin, but they have established a GoFundMe account to raise money for Stelle’s care. A portion of proceeds will benefit Veterans for Peace.