Railroad Telegrapher, Social Commentator, Diarist. Sidney Kennedy was born in the town of Corydon, Pennsylvania, now beneath the Allegheny Resevior. The only child of Frank Kennedy and Jesse Pennypacker, he went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1915, using the income to attend Clarion University where he met his future wife, Margaret McMahon. He joined the 413th Telegraph Battalion of the US Army Signal Corps when America entered World War One, a unit largely composed of Pennsylvania Railroad personnel and lead by Major Charles Baird and General W.W. Atterbury. The unit departed for Europe on the RMS Carmania and arrived on 31 January 1918. Detatched service with Allied armies resulted in his being present at the crushing attack by the Germans at Somme and at Aisne, being detailed with other Signal Corps survivors to carry off the dead, later he was temporarily blinded by a gas attack. The experiences marked him permanently and left him opposed to unecessary war. After the war he returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad at various assignments, and married Margaret. His studies permamently interrupted, he taught himself Latin and Greek and continued to read prodigously. He fathered six children, Mary, Francis X., Josephine, Theresa, Margaret, and Helen (Teeny). Between the wars he also met and struck up an aquaintence with Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet On The Western Front." Francis served during WWII, and Kennedy did long hours as an operator at Tower DF at Driftwood, Pennsylvania. He retired from the PRR in 1962 and began to work as an environmental activist in an early Pennsylvania pollution case against the Metal Wire Recovery Company and the respiratory problems that burning plastics openly in a narrow valley produced. At the same time, he became a sedulous diarist, commenting trenchantly on segregationists and the status of blacks in America "the trouble has been that while the schools were separate, they were never equal" and "the ultraconservative middle class whites are going to have to put up with a great deal of 'inconvenience' in adjusting to the status of the negro and rendering justice to both races." During the Birth Control debate in the Catholic Church he wrote "I am afraid the Pope is caught in the middle. If he condemns it, there will be widespread rebellion. If he approves it, the conservatives will have a grievance. The best course would be to postpone any decision and let each follow his own conscience." He was vehemently opposed to the Vietnam war, based upon his own experiences at the Somme. "Those who advocate carrying on the war to the point of total extinction are mostly unacquainted with the terrible suffering which a war causes." He was appalled by Cardinal Spellman's endorsement of the war,"Spellman's advocacy of total victory is full of inconsistencies..who governs a conquered land? Who feeds the people in a devestated country? Why all of the uproar about our obligation of obeying the teaching of Pope in regard to birth control when a Prince of the Church can flout the Pope's wishes?" His last full entry left a warning for the people that he would be leaving behind as Parkinson's disease ended his life: "I did not know that there are groups who want to bomb Cuba. However, I guess our Super Patriots will do anything to forment a war, even with a small and weak nation" and finally closed with "The reactionaries never learn and never forget"