Charles Haynie Dies at 65

Charles Atkinson Haynie, retired UB lecturer and former administrative coordinator for the university's Leo Tolstoy College, died Friday (July 20, 2001) in Hospice Buffalo after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 65.

A native of Queens, Haynie received a bachelor of arts degree in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1956 and left his graduate studies in mathematics to become involved in the civil rights movement.

He led a voter registration project in 1963-64 in Fayette County, Tenn., near Memphis, and was part of the second group of Freedom Riders who went to Jackson, Miss., to integrate public facilities. He spent several weeks in jail for his efforts.

He came to UB in 1969 to teach experimental courses in Tolstoy College -- one of the university's residential colleges of the 1960s and 1970s -- and soon became known as a voice of the left-wing perspective on campus and in the Buffalo area. He was one of the "Faculty 45" -- faculty members arrested during an anti-war sit-in in Hayes Hall in 1970 -- and was a reform Democratic candidate for the Buffalo Common Council in 1979.

Haynie took part in efforts to ease racial tensions, helping to organize a Buffalo Unity Day rally in 1980, and joined demonstrations against the Seabrook, N.H., and Three Mile Island nuclear power plants.

A lecturer in the Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program, Haynie taught such courses as "Statistics for Social Sciences," "American Left" and "American Reactionary Movements." He also served as the program's undergraduate advisor and was an affiliate of the Environment and Society Institute.

In addition, he wrote a regular column, "Out of the Chaos," for the Spectrum.

Haynie retired from UB last year.

The details of an on-campus memorial service planned for the fall will be announced.