By Maya Johnson
The life and legacy of UC Santa Barbara religious studies professor Walter Capps was celebrated by the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at a Veterans Day panel discussion on his ground-breaking Vietnam War class.
Shad Meshad of the National Veterans Foundation at a panel titled “Remembering the Vietnam War Class,” to honor late UCSB Religious Studies professor Walter Capps. Photo by Bex Spiegelman, UCSB Capps Center.
“It’s not about the combat and all the special effects we see there at war. It's really about what’s going on in the hearts and souls of people,” said Shad Meshad, founder and president of the National Veterans Foundation, who spoke on the panel.
The session on Vietnam was part of a two-day series of events that marked a quarter century since Capps’ passing. The symposium paid tribute to Capps’ national contribution as an educator and politician, and brought together political leaders such as former U.S. Senator and Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey, as well as Capps’ widow, the former U.S. Representative Lois Capps, and their daughter, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps.
Walter Capps served as a defining faculty member of UCSB’s Religious Studies department before going on to be elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for nine months before his sudden death in 1997.
Daina Berry, Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at UCSB, introduced the weekend’s opening panel, titled the “Value of Humanities.” Other humanities scholars spoke on panels that ranged from the “Study of Religion” to the “Value of Public Service,” introduced by UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang, and featuring Todd Capps, alongside his mother and sister.
Walter H. Capps, former U.S. House of Representatives member and professor of Religious Studies at UCSB.
Walter Capps’ two most distinguished classes in the 1980s, “Voices of a Stranger” and “The Vietnam War and American Religion,” brought forward voices from many unheard minorities, including those with AIDS and incarcerated individuals.
“The idea was to engage people across a variety of perceived boundaries to try and see each other in their full humanity,” Capps Center director Greg Johnson said, describing Walter Capps’ impact through the courses he developed at UCSB.
The extremely influential Vietnam War class played a large role in redefining attitudes after the war by creating a safe and healing space for veterans, many of whom returned home only to be outcast by their communities for their perceived loss of the war.
The Vietnam War class was taught from 1978 to 1995 when it was taken over by Religious Studies colleague Richard Hecht, and it brought in nearly 1000 UCSB undergraduates each year. Hecht, now an emeritus professor after retiring from the university, was also a panelist, streamed in to Campbell Hall at the “Remembering the Vietnam War Class,” considered to be UCSB’s most famous class. The course garnered many accolades, including three features on CBS’s 60 Minutes news magazine.
Emeritus UCSB Religious Studies professor Richard Hecht, on-screen behind fellow panelists Shad Meshad of the National Veterans Foundation and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey at Campbell Hall in a discussion on “The Vietnam War and American Religion.” Photo by Bex Spiegelman, UCSB Capps Center.
The 26th anniversary of Capps’ passing presented an opportunity to pass this knowledge onto a new generation, speakers said. Bob Kerrey and Shad Meshad, who both spoke at “Remembering the Vietnam War Class,” described the impact of the signature course that provided healing for students and for veterans of Vietnam.
The understanding and empathy that spread nationally from that class became integral to prioritizing mental care for veterans and to our understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in soldiers, Meshad said. The media attention that the class received gave it the power to open national discussion on what at the time were polarizing issues.
“People were really nervous approaching us and didn’t really want to talk to civilians,” said Meshad, who himself worked extensively to counsel troops through the trauma of the Vietnam War. “What Walter did… brought these stories to the world, via this university. It just evolved. It was a force.”
At an event to celebrate the late UCSB Religious Studies professor Walter Capps, Shad Meshad of the National Veterans Foundation and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey answer questions from former students of Capps’ Vietnam War class.
Photo by Bex Spiegelman, UCSB Capps Center.
As the panel closed out, former students of the class, some who had gone on to become educators and diplomats themselves, spoke of the class’s lasting influence on their “moral code” and how they “move through the world.”
Other sessions that weekend celebrate Capps’ legacy with discussions that ranged from modern teachings of religion, to civic values, and one presenting archival footage of Capps’ congressional campaign. An opportunity for healing was offered when all present were asked to share memories and remarks in Capps’ memory.
To further Capps’ strong advocacy for public humanities, the Capps Center now brings discussion and ethics education to the Santa Barbara community, said Capps Center director Greg Johnson. The center continues what its namesake began with a number of public lectures each year, on topics that range from race to religion and politics and reproductive justice. “These are issues that concern us all from student, staff, faculty and community members,” Johnson said.
Maya Johnson is a fourth-year Writing and Literature studies major at UC Santa Barbara. She is a Web and Social media intern with the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.