Titus Peachey

Former Board Chair

“I was a member of the Legacies of War Board because of the shattered Lao hoehead that has lain on my desk for more than 40 years. It was given to us by a man from Moung Kham Village who lost his wife and the mother of his 11 children to an unexploded U.S. cluster bomb in 1981. Each day it tells me that I must be deliberate and creative if I wish to contribute to a future of safety and peace. Legacies of War provides a wonderful opportunity to do this.“

My Story

Linda and Titus begin their work together in Laos from 1981-1985 for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) with humanitarian assistance focused on post-war recovery. In 1994, Titus helped to start an unexploded ordnance project on behalf of MCC. This project, now administered by the Lao government, employs more than 4,000 people working for different agencies in nine different provinces. Titus has been a life-long advocate for a global ban on cluster munitions. As a result of the work of the Cluster Munition Coalition in which Titus participated, representatives from 107 countries met in Dublin, Ireland in 2008 and agreed to end the production, sale, use and storage of these weapons by adopting the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In November 2010, the Peacheys returned to Laos for an international meeting of about 1,000 government officials and leaders of nongovernmental organizations opposed to the use of cluster munitions.

The Story That Changed Them Forever:

In a small village in northern Laos in early 1981, a mother of 11 children accidentally struck a cluster bomb with a hoe while working in her garden, and was killed.

The next day, Linda visited the woman’s family. During her visit, she was given a broken hoe head, and with this gift, she was given a request: “Take this hoe head back to America,” said the woman’s husband. “Use it to tell our story, so that this won’t happen again to other families in other countries.”

Decades have passed since Linda visited the motherless family, but the Peacheys have not forgotten the family's request to tell people their story. The broken hoe head she received that day has accompanied the Peacheys on many speaking engagements and sits on Titus's desk as a motivation to keep working.

"We've really tried to honor that desire that we not forget that family," Gehman Peachey said.

In honor of their decades of service and love for Laos and Legacies of War, the Board and Staff have created this special Fellow’s program to inspire future leaders to continue the work that Titus and Linda have started in Laos through learning more about Legacies of War and the work in Laos first hand.

The Titus and Linda Peachey Peace Fellowship (TLPPF) is a program that we will offer to 1-2 people per year. The Fellow(s) will have the opportunity to travel to Laos with Legacies of War and upon their return to the U.S., they will have the option to share their experience at two Legacies of War events. The cost of flights, hotels and food will be fully covered and the Fellow(s) will receive $2500 (each) upon successful completion of the program. The 2025-2026 Fellowship Cycle has closed. Follow Legacies of War for updates of the next application window!

Titus Peachey

My Story

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