Joshua Jay Dostis, better known locally as the politically charged jester Waffles T. Clown, died on Nov. 9. He was 83.

Friends in Franklin County are mourning the loss of the New York City transplant and longtime New Salem resident who spent his final days at Charlene Manor Extended Care in Greenfield, where he succumbed to bladder cancer after some time in hospice.

“He was very creative, had quite a sense of humor, as reflected in his activism. He was a clown. He was trained as an architect but it was political activism that he did as a clown, rather than typical clowning,” friend Karen Fogliatti said on Friday. “He was very concerned about world events and really used his street theater to try to draw attention to the issues that he was concerned about. And did it in a very creative and humorous way.”

Dostis will perhaps be most remembered for a December 2007 protest in which he ascended a sign at the Big Y plaza in Greenfield dressed as Uncle Sam with donkey ears and unfurled a handmade banner sounding the alarm on veteran suicide rates and urging an end to the Iraq War. He also waved a small American flag and shouted anti-war slogans and other comments through a megaphone. This stunt got him arrested for trespassing and disorderly conduct after two Greenfield Police officers and a firefighter ascended using a fire truck to retrieve him.

“He was a passionate pacifist,” said friend Janet Masucci. “He was a really loving person, but he knew how to push people’s buttons, but he did it strategically to make a point.”

Masucci even created and narrated a four-minute video chronicling Dostis’ stunt and the events that led up to it. The video can be viewed at tinyurl.com/WafflesTClown. Masucci said Dostis’ friends hope to hold a memorial service in the spring.

War and veterans’ issues were particularly personal to Dostis, himself a military veteran.

Friend Gail “Ginger” Carson said Dostis earned degrees in mechanical engineering and architecture, and was hired by renowned architect Paul Rudolph.

“And when he realized ... that he was going to be sitting there drawing parking garages for the rest of his life, he quit,” she said.

Carson mentioned Dostis was briefly a taxi driver in Manhattan before joining the U.S. Army, where he worked as a cartoonist.

Dostis reportedly first moved to Stockbridge and then to New Salem.

“Everybody in New Salem and Wendell knows him,” Carson said.

She explained Dostis’ clown name was derived from his brief ownership of a waffle shop on Main Street in Greenfield and the fact that he collected antique wafflemakers.

According to a recent Greenfield Recorder column written by Al Norman, Dostis also worked tirelessly with the anti-nuclear movement and protested a state plan to divert Route 2 through Wendell State Forest/Bear Mountain by dressing up as a bear. He even got a photo taken with then-Gov. Michael Dukakis and later donated his bear costume to the Wendell Historical Society.

Dostis ran as a write-in presidential candidate on the Waffles Party ticket in 2000. He campaigned in Manchester, New Hampshire, as Dick Head, wearing a 6-foot costume of a male organ. He pledged to “reform the penal code” and “foster intercourse between nations.” He was arrested for lewdness, but the New Hampshire courts said his appearance was protected by the First Amendment.

“He was one quirky guy,” Masucci said. “He was incredibly intelligent, multi-talented and gifted on many levels. He was creative and at the same time was also an architect and understood science.”

Friend Ezzell Floranina said Dostis was also instrumental in the founding of the Full Moon Coffeehouse in Wendell.

“I believe that art can be a strong kind of megaphone, where just marches and shouting might not work,” she said. “Characters and clowning is a great way [to do that]. You get people laughing and they go, ‘Oh, there’s something serious behind that laugh.’ And he as a genius at that.”

Fogliatti said Dostis was exceptional at lifting her spirits.

“He just wanted to make the world a better place,” she said. “He had a big heart and that’s what motivated him to do all the things that he did.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.