John Fanestil
Peace & Friendship
Legacy Fund
John Fanestil
Peace & Friendship
Legacy Fund
Honoring John Fanestil
From his early days as a student organizer at Dartmouth College and Oxford University, to his decades of leadership with San Diego–based peace and justice organizations, John has devoted more than 45 years to advancing the causes of peace and friendship.
In recognition of his extraordinary commitment, we are launching the Peace & Friendship Legacy Fund in John’s honor. This fund will provide essential support during a pivotal moment of leadership transition at the Friends of International Friendship Park, ensuring that the organization continues to grow, innovate, and advance the vision of a truly international park.
By supporting the Peace & Friendship Legacy Fund, sponsors and donors will help secure the future of the work he has championed—strengthening the movement for peace, friendship, and cooperation across borders for generations to come.
John’s retirement celebration is more than a tribute to his
remarkable career—it is an opportunity to invest in the future of International Friendship Park and the values it represents
Giving through your Donor Advised Fund can be a quick and easy way to support our work.
Please provide this information to your fund manager to direct a gift:
Legal name: Friends of International Friendship Park, Inc.
Address: 4617 Edenvale Ave., La Mesa CA 91941
Federal tax ID number: EIN 99-2063362
John Fanestil -- A Legacy of Peace & Friendship
John was born on June 8, 1961 in La Jolla, California. His mother, D.Ann, walked up the hill from graduate student housing on Coast Boulevard to give birth at the old Scripps Hospital, where his father Darrell was working as a resident.
After brief stays in Baltimore, San Francisco, and Kansas City, John's family returned to La Jolla when Darrell secured a position at the UC San Diego Medical School. Brother Brad and sisters Jane and Kay were constant companions throughout his childhood. They remain the best of friends.
John spent his junior year of high school in Cambridge, England where his father was on sabbatical. John was very unhappy to miss the basketball season, but attending an English "village college" gave him a life-changing first experience in making "friends across borders."
John graduated as valedictorian of La Jolla High School in 1979. He also played in the San Diego City-County All Star Basketball game. John's high school basketball team includes many lifelong friends.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth College from 1979-1983, John worked with friends to launch a progressive magazine, The Harbinger, as a counterweight to the notoriously right-wing Dartmouth Review.
While studying at Oxford University from 1983-1985, John worked with other Rhodes Scholars -- many of whom are friends to this day -- and students from 37 countries to organize an International Fast for Peace in Nicaragua, a response to Reagan Administration policy in Central America.
After returning to San Diego, John joined a small solidarity organization called the Central America Information Center. He also immersed himself in the Sanctuary movement, reconnecting with the pacifist faith of his Christian ancestors. Here, in a 2026 webinar John reflects on the lessons of the Sanctuary movement for today.
John and Jennifer Allison Leich were married in 1990. They adopted Eleanor Grace Fanestil in 1994 and Jacob Eli Fanestil in 2001. Granddaughter Asijah was born to Ellen in 2018. Jacob and Amoy were married in 2024.
John was ordained as a Pastor in the United Methodist Church in 1992. His first assignment was to a church in the border town of Calexico, where he fell in love with the peoples, cultures, and languages of the US-Mexico borderlands. He was especially moved by his immersion in the Mariposa Ministry, a ministry "of, by, and for people with disabilities" on both sides of the border. Through to 2005, John also served at churches in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and La Mesa. Through it all, his heart remained connected to the border.
In 2006 Doubleday published John's first book, in which he shares "Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die." The idea that people nearing the end of their lives can tap reserves of extraordinary spiritual power is something John has learned from parishioners like Margaret Lorenz, Idalia Chestnut, Jan Whitehead, and Meg Skinner.
From 2007-2014, John served as the Executive Director of a small social justice foundation, the San Diego Foundation for Change. Working with others, John sharpened its focus to support emerging leaders in San Diego's "immigrant, refugee and border communities." Read the Foundation's 2013 Report: We Are the Change.
For seven years beginning in 2007, John worked as the Dean of Strength for the Journey, a week-long summer church camp for people living with HIV/AIDS. The camp affirmed every participant as a child of God, deserving of every measure of love and affection and affirmation. John remains close friends with many others who have led this camp across three decades.
When the federal government announced plans to wall off Friendship Park, John joined with friends -- including Dan Watman, Pedro Rios, Christian Ramirez, Adriana Jasso, Jamie Gates, Maria Teresa Fernandez, Jamie Gates, Jill Holslin, Enrique Morones and others -- to launch the Friends of Friendship Park as a community coalition to defend the historic cross-border meeting place.
John first served communion at Friendship Park in August 2008, trespassing repeatedly on federal property to pass grape juice and tortilla strips through the border wall. In February 2009 Border Patrol agents formed a human wall to prevent hundreds of people from accessing the border for communion. John was detained and released without charge. Watch the short video here.
Beginning in 2010, John and the Friends of Friendship Park joined with architect Jim Brown to negotiate the reopening of Friendship Park with San Diego Border Patrol. After the construction of double border walls was completed in 2011, Border Patrol allowed restricted access to the meeting place, before finally establishing regular weekend "visiting hours" in 2012. Read the 2012 Press Release.
Able to count on regular access to federal property in the United States, thousands of families traveled to this location from across both the US and Mexico between 2011 and 2020, connecting with loved ones through the border wall. Watch John interview one young woman here, who reconnected with her deported mother for the first time in three years.
With Pastor Saul Montiel, and later Pastor Guillermo Navarrete, John launched a weekly cross-border communion service at Friendship Park. The Border Church / La Iglesia Fronteriza has now gathered people on both sides of the border every Sunday for over 15 years, with leadership on the US side passing to Seth Clark and now Manuel Retamoza. Hundreds of clergy from every Christian denomination have participated.
Beginning in 2018, and continuing for over a year, John worked with Dustin Craun, Imam Taha Hassane and others to share the space of Friendship Park with community members calling themselves The Border Mosque, who shared the mid-day Muslim prayer before Border Church services. Watch the 7-minute short documentary, Prayer Beyond Borders.
From 2020-2024, John served as Executive Director of Via International, sharing leadership of the non-profit with President Elisa Sabatini. Working with staff members Rigo Reyes, Joanna Salazar Harris, Aida Amador and others, John helped the organization navigate the global pandemic while continuing to convene the Friends of Friendship Park.
Supported by a fellowship made possible by Peter Mancall, John completed his Ph.D in the History Department at USC in 2017. In his second book, published by Fortress Press in 2021, John shared the history of "martyrdom and the making of the American Revolution." The spiritual inheritance of English Protestantism in American history is a double-edged sword.
John officially retired from the United Methodist Church in 2023. In his most recent book, published by Fortress Press in 2023, John shares "the roots and reach of White Christian Nationalism." The religious roots of the American Revolution continue to produce both sweet and bitter fruit.
Working with President Mona Kuczenski, Treasurer Eric Bowlby and founding Board Members Robert Vivar, Pedro Rios, Adriana Jasso, Jim Brown, Diane Keeling, Barb Casserly, Katie Santos, Maria Teresa Fernandez, and Michelle Holling, John established the Friends of International Friendship Park, Inc. as a stand-alone nonprofit organization. Founding team members included Dan Watman, Alexanda Calvaruso, Nanzi Muro, Natalia Ventura, Tania Mendoza, and Martha Cázares. The mission of the new organization -- to "create a truly international park at the western end of the U.S.-Mexico border" -- is supported by a growing network of community members, activists, artists, and organizations on both sides of the border.
In preparing for his retirement, John asked the organization's Board of Directors to establish a "Peace & Friendship Legacy Fund" to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Thank you!
55th Anniversary: Friday, August 14, 2026
JOIN WITH
FRIENDS!
On Friday, Aug. 14, we will gather in downtown San Diego to celebrate the Park’s 55th Anniversary and to honor John Fanestil on the occasion of his retirement.
BUILD A
LEGACY!
In honor of John’s leadership and commitment, we have established the Peace & Friendship Legacy Fund to support the organization’s next generation of impact.