Partly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's work and nonviolent resistance in general, he is notable for his series of one-man protests against the Berlin Wall during the 1980s.
He became a stretcher-bearer, and served on the western front, mostly in the Allied invasion of Belgium, France and Germany, seeing many of his fellow soldiers die and often coming quite close to being hit by artillery bombardment.
About 1980 Runnings, along with other Quakers, got involved in the "Stop Trident" {nuclear submarines} movement in Bangor, Washington.
After being arrested a few times, Runnings began to develop a perspective of his own as regards the problems associated with the Cold War.
He began to advocate a totally new method during this period, when Cold War threats had become more dangerous to life on earth than at any other time in human history.
Finally, after nearly two weeks of "playing this police station game", the Soviet authorities got "really tired" of Runnings' persistence.
The plane took off and the next thing he noticed was they were coming in for landing over an expanse of what seemed like endless forests and lakes.
A year later, Runnings went to Berlin to knock chunks out of the Wall and finally got arrested by East German guards and put in their jail for over three months.