Biography:
I joke that I come from a “nuclear family”. My Japanese mother is a survivor of the Nagasaki nuclear bomb blast, my American father was a nuclear missile technician stationed in Japan during the Korean conflict of the 1950’s. I was born and named Edward Izumi Ellsworth in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. My younger brother Dan became a nuclear tender on US Navy submarines, and worked much of his life at a nuclear power plant in Arkansas. So, of course it was my karma to become the peace and environmental activist, and work on nuclear issues.
I was a close working associate of Henry S. Dakin, since the mid-1980s, and collaborated with him in his nonprofit non-governmental think-tank Washington Research Institute. I worked with him and his H. S. Dakin typesetting company on book projects like Information Moscow and other poster print projects. We were the only Cyrillic typesetters in San Francisco. We also volunteered to support many Presidio Alliance and other community projects.
I started The Dolphin Network newsletter at the Washington Research Institute offices, using this new Postscript printing technology, for making tabloid-size four-color separations with a laser typesetting machine and batch photo processing equipment in a dark room.
As time moved on, I purchased H. S. Dakin Company’s Adobe Linotronic 100 typesetter and Oscar-Fisher film processing equipment in 1989, and used the equipment to start Pinnacle Type, a digital typesetting company (on Hotaling, under the TransAmerica Building, im San Francisco).
I worked with Henry Dakin on various projects with Washington Research Institute and the 3220 Gallery penthouse presentation space. We used to monitor the Molniya satellite, and help various citizen-to-citizen peace and environmental projects.
Dan Sythe (International Medcom), Henry Dakin and I (Washington Research Institute), put a remote geiger counter radiation detection network around Chernobyl in the mid-80′s. The Chernobyl plant was venting radioactive gases, without warning the surrounding population. The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred on 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. It was considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, until Fukushima. I worked on the petition drive campaign for Green Action Japan. I also worked with Dan Sythe on geigercounter.com, and he took some geiger counters to be donated to Japan, to create SafeCast, the private radiation detection network.
At 3220, I managed the 3220 building’s T1 internet connection and supported many groups that started or came through there. My associate, Henry Dakin, enjoyed making newsletters and posters for many notable groups, and I was there doing technical support. I helped Henry with one of the first video conferences after the 9/11 disaster, connecting in the United Kingdom with author Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, writer of The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001, and other notable events.
3220 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, which housed Washington Research Institute, incubated or hatched many influential companies and groups: Apple Computer’s Multimedia Lab (where QuickTime was developed), Amnesty International, Association of Space Explorers, Global Space Bridge of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Heart to Heart, Information Moscow, International Space Sciences Association, Institute for Noetic Sciences, Institute for Global Communications, Berkeley-Leningrad Sister City Project, California Institute of Integral Studies, Center for Citizen Initiatives, InterNews, Astrology.com, Collective Heritage Institute (Bioneers), Church of Shambala, Damanhur, Data Fusion, Democratic Socialists of America, Doctors Without Borders, Earth First!, Earth Island Institute, EcoNet, Esalen/Soviet Exchange Program, Foundation for Social Innovation, Friends of Calligraphy, Mother Jones Magazine, Nuclear Free Zone, Pachama Alliance, Parapsychology Research Group, PeaceNet, Peace Child, Pinnacle Type, Physicians for Social Responsibilty, Rainforest Action Network, San Francisco AIDS Society, SANE Freeze, San Francisco/Moscow Teleport, San Francisco Tesla Society, San Francisco Waldorf School, San Francisco Zen Center, Sound Photosynthesis, The Cultural Conservancy, The Dolphin Network, The Elmwood Institute, The Energy Foundation, The Gorbachev Foundation, Threshold Foundation, The Tides Foundation, Tibetan Cultural Preservation Project, Tuuleme River Trust, The Waite Group, US-USSR Youth Exchange Program, WorldLink and many, many more.
Nonprofit Activities
Board of Directors – Chaksampa, a Tibetan Dance and Opera Company chaksampa.org
Previously on the Board of Directors Sunrise Center – sunrisecenter.org
Petition Campaign – Green Action Japan fukushima.greenaction-japan.com
Consulting Activities:
Corporate and Festival AV Production – Enlightened Films, CEO, Video Producer, Tiburon, California.
AV Producer, Bhakti Fest and Shakti Fest, Joshua Tree, California.
Associate Director, Hale Akua Garden Farm & Eco-Retreat Center, Maui, Hawaii.
World Service Projects:
Filmed Prem Baba for several years in Awaken Love and Yes to Love programs and events in Maui, Colorado and California.
Technical Director, Yuri’s Night, Celebrating the First Man in Space. This was a NASA, Google Earth, and Burning Man culture collaboration, held at NASA Moffett Field, California.
Lead manufacturing and marketing of International Medcom after the Fukushima Daiichi reactors event, leading IT, Accounting and Marketing efforts, shipping $3 million dollars of nuclear detection geiger counters to Japan, and the components of the SafeCast private radiation detection network in Japan.
Worked with the US Navy on a project to clean up Kaho’olawe, the island off the coast of Maui that was used for target practice for fifty years. I did the video Protective Works, documenting the removal of the ordinance, and preserving the natural Hawaiian area, which was a $400 million dollar project.
Worked with a Versicherungs Treuhand Zurich Solar Policy project in Switzerland. VTZ purchased a German Stirling Solar Engine manufacturing plant and distributed the solar energy technology in Africa.
Assisted Washington Research Institute, Henry S. Dakin, and Dan Sythe to put a private radiation detection network around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Monitored the Soviet Molniya Satellite, and worked on various satellite projects for peace. Worked with San Francisco Moscow Teleport and 3220 Gallery hosting Satellite Space Bridges. Worked on the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations. Worked on Ode to Joy, a three-continent satellite music collaboration project. Worked with Beyond War on creating peace.
Over a period of several years, traveled to India to work in Tibetan refugee camps, video recording survivor’s stories and traditional Tibetan Dance and Opera and helping preserve Tibetan Culture from disappearing.
Created the US permit release process to let dolphins go free from captivity, and return to the wild, making way for the release of two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins from MarineWorld Africa USA. These dolphins were the focus of Dr. John Lilly’s Human/Dolphin Foundation Project JANUS research, studying human dolphin communication. I put them on a plane at San Francisco Airport to be transported to Florida, to be transitioned for release back to the wild.