dennis weaver

Dennis Weaver, 81, Sidekick on 'Gunsmoke,' Dies

of course he was MUCH more than a sidekick on gunsmoke.........

............1982, with his wife and some friends, he founded an organization called Love Is Feeding Everyone, which fed more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles each week. In 1993, he and his wife founded a nonprofit group called the Institute of Ecolonomics — a word Mr. Weaver coined from combining ecology and economics — to find solutions to environmental problems. In 2003 the institute created a "Drive to Survive" campaign in which Mr. Weaver led a fleet of alterative-fuel vehicles on a cross-country tour to Washington to raise awareness about reducing the country's dependence on oil.
Since 1990, Mr. Weaver and his wife had lived in an earthship: an almost 10,000-square-foot, solar-powered home in Ridgway constructed from about 3,000 recycled tires and 300,000 tin and aluminum cans. ................

Dennis Weaver, 81, Dies in Ridgway

........Off-screen, Weaver served as president of the Screen Actors Guild; a vegetarian, he was an activist for environmental and charitable causes. He served as president of Love Is Feeding Everyone, feeding 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles County, and later founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, which sought solutions to economic and environmental problems.
He spoke everywhere from the United Nations to the U.S. Congress, as well as to college students and schoolchildren about fighting pollution.Weaver’s “Earthship” home was probably the most visible of Weaver’s crusades. He and his wife, Gerry, built the solar-powered Colorado dwelling out of recycled tires and cans. The thick walls helped keep the inside temperature even year-round..........
....2003, Weaver embarked on the “Drive to Survive,” leading a fleet of alternative-fueled vehicles on a cross-country whistle-stop tour, from California to Washington, D.C., to increase awareness of the need to reduce our nation’s dependence on oil. He had, just recently, joined forces with singer Willie Nelson to promote the development and use of farmer-grown biodiesel as a viable alternative fuel.
Weaver’s Institute of Ecolonomics continues to operate, and has established curricula used in U.S. universities, under the leadership of Peter LaVaute, of Ecosense Solutions www.ecosensesolutions.com), and Rob Wood, of Missouri Southern State University (www.ecolonomics.org)................