John Backer, 61-year veteran of Church World Service, passed away December 14


December 16, 2011

John Backer helped CWS resettle tens of thousands of refugees Photo: CWS

John Backer helped CWS resettle tens of thousands of refugees Photo: CWS

John Backer, whose 61-year career with Church World Service began as a volunteer welcoming refugees from post-war Europe upon arrival at the piers of New York City, died December 14, 2011, following a heart attack.  He was 79.

The family has scheduled the funeral for Saturday, December 17, 2011, at Broadway United Church of Christ, 2504 Broadway @ 93rd Street, New York, N.Y.  The Rev. James P. Campbell, Pastor, will officiate.  Visitation/viewing hours will be 10:00 a.m. to noon, with the funeral service to begin at noon.

Burial will be at Fairview Cemetery, Stone Ridge, N.Y.

Mr. Backer assisted directly or indirectly in the resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees from around the world, including Hungary, Cuba and Indochina, thus contributing immeasurably to CWS’s resettlement of 500,000 refugees from around the world since the agency was founded in 1946.

He served CWS, particularly its refugee and international leadership development programs, full time from 1955 until his retirement in 1994, then continued as a part-time “temporary professional” – officially, at least.  At the time of his death, he was still choosing to spend a full 35-hour work week at the CWS offices on New York’s Upper West Side.

“John Backer was a CWS legend, one of our greats,” said the Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer.  “His story is the story of CWS, one of service, ecumenism, compassion and dedication.  John’s easy-going demeanor and kind personality reserved him a special place in the hearts of his colleagues and countless refugees he helped over the years.”

He lived a few blocks from the office and was a member of The Riverside Church, worshiping there regularly Sunday mornings.  He also joined the congregation of Broadway United Church of Christ regularly for its 5 p.m. Sunday service and supper.

Mr. Backer’s parents immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1920 and settled in Ridgewood, Queens.  John William Backer was born in New York City on August 30, 1932.  When he was four years old, his mother took him back to Germany to care for her ailing parents.

“The idea was that she would stay there for awhile and then come back to the United States, but because of the war we got stuck there for a longer period of time,” Mr. Backer recalled in a July 2011 interview.  He lived in Germany until age 14.

“I came back alone to the United States and I happened to be in Army transport with refugees,” he said.  A representative of Travelers Aid took him to meet his father, who was waiting outside the customs area.

He went to high school in Queens, graduating in 1950.  “In addition to getting a job, I wanted to do some volunteer work.  I called Travelers Aid and said, ‘Do you need any volunteers?’”  He was told “No, but Church World Service does.”  “This is how I got started as a volunteer with Church World Service,” he said.

“Usually on Saturdays I would go to the piers in New York where an Army transport chartered by the United States Lines would arrive from Germany,” he said.  “These transports carried displaced persons who came to the United States under the Displaced Persons Act.

“Usually these transports included 200-300 persons who were sponsored by Church World Service,” which recruited congregations across the United States to help new refugee arrivals get settled.  “We would assist the CWS-sponsored persons through customs, help with baggage transfer, take them by bus to Pennsylvania Station, wait with them at the station and place them on trains to their final destination.

“The main thing was to put them on and try to get off before the train left,” he said.  On one occasion, he was still on board when the train began to move.  “Fortunately I was able to get off at Newark, the first stop.”

Mr. Backer’s volunteer work led to a temporary staff position in 1955, and in January 1956 he was hired as a permanent, full-time staff member.  “From then on, I did both office work and pier work,” he said.

In September 1956, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, beginning in California.  During his two-year leave of absence from CWS, he found a way to continue serving newly arrived refugees.  A hundred thousand arrived in the U.S. following the Hungarian revolution.  They were processed at New Jersey’s Camp Kilmer.  Assigned there by the Army from December 1956 to May 1957, Mr. Backer met the CWS staff person at the camp and carried on the work he learned on New York’s piers – arranging transportation for CWS refugees who were ready to leave the camp to go to their sponsor.

In May 1957, Mr. Backer returned to his regular Army assignment in San Francisco.  While there, he also completed a B.A. degree at San Francisco State College, majoring in social sciences and German (1958).  He rejoined CWS in September 1958, where he worked at various times in refugee case processing, pier reception and social services.

When Cubans began arriving in the United States in large numbers, Backer went to Miami, Fla., in 1961, to help arrange sponsorships for Cuban refugees who wanted to resettle outside of Miami.

He returned to New York, and in 1963 received an M.A. degree from Columbia University Teachers College with a major in Guidance and Student Personnel Administration in Higher Education.  He returned to Columbia University in 1968 to earn a professional diploma in guidance and student personnel administration.

In June 1964, he joined CWS’s Ecumenical Scholarship Exchange (later renamed Leadership Development Program) as Administrative Assistant and later as Director.  The program placed international graduate students at U.S. seminaries.

In 1979, when the United States’ Indochinese refugee resettlement program was beginning to peak, CWS asked Mr. Backer to administer its Refugee Reception Unit, which at the time included offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.  At that time, CWS staff met all refugees at the airports, assisted them to onward transportation and notified sponsors of arrival at the final destination.

In 1980, more than 100,000 Cubans arrived in the Mariel Boatlift and were sent to refugee camps in four states: Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arkansas.  CWS opened an office in each camp, and Mr. Backer was deployed to provide technical assistance.

In October 1981, Mr. Backer was appointed Interim Associate Director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program, and in September 1983, Associate Director for Administration of CWS/IRP, all the while continuing his responsibilities as Leadership Development Program Director.

He retired on December 31, 1994, but continued with CWS/IRP on a part-time basis, doing, as he put it, “whatever is needed.”  As CWS’s longest-serving member and the Immigration and Refugee Program’s living archive, he helped update a CWS history and often fielded questions about the past, whether from a graduate student researching post-WWII U.S. immigration and refugee policies or from a second generation American writing a biography of her refugee parents.

What kept him going, he said in 2006, was the dedication of colleagues and supporting denominations.  “The staff now has the same enthusiasm and commitment to the work,” he said.  “I feel part of it.”  He also remarked at the willingness of congregation after congregation to co-sponsor refugees, sight unseen, knowing only their nationality, names, and ages, throughout CWS’s 65-year history.  “They commit to finding housing, putting food in the refrigerator, meeting them at the airport, and helping with any problems,” he said.

Mr. Backer is survived by his sister Katie Topolovec (husband Franz) of Accord, N.Y.; his nieces Lisa Topolovec (Gregg Erickson) of Mountaindale, N.Y., and Angela Colon (Ernest) of Vestal, N.Y.; his nephews Frank Topolovec (Marta) of Canton, Mich., and John Topolovec (Lauren) of Huntington, N.Y.; two grand-nieces, and five grand-nephews.