Peace Corps News

Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Tanzania Volunteer Joseph Chow

Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams is saddened to announce the death of Peace Corps volunteer Joseph Chow in Tanzania. Joseph died in a rock climbing accident near the village of Mbuji in the Ruvuma region in the southern part of Tanzania.

After graduating from Amherst College in 2007, Joseph was invited to serve in Peace Corps/Kenya as a math and science teacher and arrived for his pre-service training in September 2007. He was sworn in as a volunteer in November and placed in the village of Ndalat to teach chemistry and physics at St. Clement Secondary School. Following the suspension of the Peace Corps/Kenya program in early 2008, Joseph volunteered to transfer to Tanzania to continue his service as an education volunteer. In February 2008, he began teaching college preparatory chemistry at Ndanda Secondary School in the Mtwara region of southern Tanzania.

Maury Albertson, one of the architects of the Peace Corps, has died at 90

Maury Albertson, one of the architects of the Peace Corps, died at 90 on January 11. India RPCV Jane Albritton has written her memories Albertson and his contributions to the Peace Corps:

"As Maury recounted his story, his voice was still filled with the wonder of it all. He remained amazed that everything moved so fast. That Sargent Shriver could put together a team that included Bill Moyers and Warren Wiggens. That "Sarge" had the stamina to have lunch with every legislator in DC to get the money to fund JFK's vision and Maury's plan. Colorado State became one of the first training sites for volunteers, and Pauline became the first director in Pakistan. Check it out. In 1961 a Farsi-speaking woman running the show in Muslim Pakistan where the first group included three Black volunteers. Martin Luther King made his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, and it took until 1964 for the Civil Rights Act to bar discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex. I came to understand that the pivotal role he played in the development of the Peace Corps was just part of his bigger, personal vision for Peace on Earth. Just weeks before he died at 90, he had been in Jakarta, Indonesia, teaching a doctorate-level class on sustainable development. Who was this guy? I have tried to come up with an image for Maury. Here’s the best I can do. I think he was like a big planet with its own gravitational pull. Even from a distance, it looks bright in the night sky. But what happens when you look more closely with a stronger telescope? Why there’s more. The bright planet - like Jupiter, maybe - has color and 63 moons orbiting around it. And no matter how close you get, the vision never gets out of focus, even as it turns - with apparent joy - in multiple motions. That would be Maury. "

Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Volunteer John Roberts

Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Volunteer John Roberts
The Peace Corps is mourning the loss of John D. Roberts, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu. Roberts died as the result of an accident while working at his site on October 11. A student was cutting branches from a tree at the school where Roberts and other students were cleaning the garden, and when one of the branches fell, it struck Roberts and another member of the community. Tragically, both were killed. "John was an exemplary Volunteer who had a true heart for service," said Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter. "John's death is a tremendous loss for his family, the Peace Corps, and the People of Vanuatu—in particular those in the community where he served. Read more.

Family Remembers Peace Corps Volunteer
Doug Roberts told KETV NewsWatch 7 on Friday that his son graduated from Westside High School in 2001 and from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. He said his son's life was about helping people, and he said he and his wife are struggling to come to terms with their son's death.  "You never anticipate a phone call like this. I knew it could happen -- you always know it can happen," Doug Roberts said. "John was our only child, which makes it doubly difficult. I always knew this day could occur. I tried not to think about it."  Doug Roberts said his son was scheduled to come home next month.  "The anticipation of getting him home was what was keeping me going. We were going to have a Thanksgiving celebration here -- have it as big as we could, and with as many family members as we could get here," he said.  The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday and the director of the Peace Corps will speak.  Doug Roberts said his son's death was an accident, and at this point they are not blaming anyone. He said the family just wants to celebrate his life and memory. Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Vanuatu.

Read more about the Peace Corps Fallen.

Obituary for Morocco Country Director Everett Woodman

Obituary for Morocco Country Director Everett Woodman
At age 88, World War II veteran and former diplomat Everett M. Woodman took the podium as guest speaker at the 2004 Fourth of July celebration in Hanover, N.H., and condemned the war in Iraq as a betrayal of American ideals. Some in the crowd booed the former Navy intelligence officer, who 60 years prior had stormed the beaches at Normandy and now stood with the help of two canes. But Mr. Woodman continued speaking, according to his daughter Betsy, of Andover, N.H., who was in the audience. "I think they expected a normal patriotic speech and he came out with this blistering stuff," she said.

From 1952 to 1954, Dr. Woodman worked in Madras, India as a cultural affairs officer for the United States Information Agency, and for an interim as acting public affairs officer for South India. For the next four years he served as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and as director of the Educational Exchange Program under the India-U.S.A. Agreement of Public Law 48. In 1958, Dr. Woodman joined the Ford Foundation as an educational consultant to the Government of India's Ministry of Education until his appointment as president of Colby Junior College in 1962.

As president, Woodman led the college through ten years of growth and transformation. During his term, he emphasized the importance of an international perspective on education, as evidenced by campus events such as United Nations Day and Reaching the Questioning Mind Overseas. He also sought the opinions of the college's students, faculty, and alumnae and cultivated a strong relationship with them. Dr. Woodman served as president of the American Association of Junior Colleges from 1969 to 1970 and was also active in the New Hampshire Council on World Affairs.

After leaving Colby Junior College in 1972, Dr. Woodman served as president of the Nature Conservancy in Washington, D.C. Later he was appointed director of the Peace Corps in Morocco. Colby-Sawyer College presented him with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in May of 1995. Read more.

Speech by WWII D-Day Veteran and Morocco Country Director Everett Woodman on July 4, 2004
I am glad that we are not closing this event with a bugle sounding taps, for it is not a military funeral.

It is our celebration of freedom -  our  pledge to be worthy.

And while a holiday is all around us, this gathering on the green is not a high-five conqueror’s party.

We gather in justifiable pride, knowing likewise that  we have as much to mourn as to memorialize.

We weep for those we have lost, and combat veterans will best understand that kind of loss, for they had loved each other in that bond of danger and death.

I am especially mindful of that ultimate patriotism for exactly four Sundays ago I was at the American Military Cemetery, at Omaha Beach in Normandy where 9,387 headstones mark our permanent  presence on “that terrible and Sacred Shore.”

My thoughts of D-Day 60 years ago prompt thoughts of why wars should and should not be, and includes deep feelings for all families of  soldiers, sailors, airmen  who long ago gave their lives for America. Most  recently I think  today of the sadness of  Iraq - and join you in tribute to the unselfish service our forces are still performing over there with honor and courage - pray that we can say sometime soon, honestly this time,  “Mission accomplished.”

Permit me now to pursue that theme - quietly - because the subject is delicate, and I am sensitive to that.

I say this carefully:

I am glad that  Saddam Hussein is no more a worry.

He was brutal and good riddance -  but to get rid of him we betrayed our ideals and sold our soul to the totally un-American concept of “preemptive attack deterrence” - the most transparent rationalization of  Pentagon double  talk and in that unprovoked invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation  we forfeited our claim to the moral high ground.

There is no need to multiply illustrations of why much of America is now recognizing that the Iraq adventure was a colossal tragic mistake – and when history fully appraises this worst military and diplomatic blunder in memory it will portray properly a man so hungry to be a war time President that he could  taste it. “Bring ‘em on” he said.

It will also reveal how every episode of this dreadful undertaking , from the constantly concealed civilian death toll, to American torture of prisoners, to the hastily arranged secret and superficial ceremony conveying  “full sovereign authority” to Iraq, how every aspect of this long charade has been slanted and sold by shameless rationalizations – semi-plausible sounding reasons for doing what should never be done, and not doing what should be.

Now we look ahead and our prayer is that our young people and their children will develop the courage and wisdom to find victorious living in ways other than war - that their lives in a contracting world will eliminate fear of cultural differences - the mindless prejudice that often twists proper patriotism into negative nasty nationalism that  turns otherwise civil societies into warring tribes.

Teach our children to have faith in humanity and to know the dignity of all human beings. Reaffirm America’s basic belief that all people are created  equal -   that we all are children of the Universe.  There is no nonsense about that - it is universally obvious and fundamentally American.  Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Morocco.

Read more about Peace Corps Country Directors.

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Nepal RPCV Loret Miller Ruppe
Inspired by her mother, who was director of the Peace Corps at the time and who later, was the U.S. ambassador to Norway, Dr. Ruppe served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal from 1985 to 1987. She married another Peace Corps volunteer and moved to Charlottesville where she received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1990. While pursuing a doctoral degree in environmental engineering from the University of California at David, she completed the demanding Program in College Teaching and taught undergraduate classes. Dr. Ruppe organized conferences aimed at encouraging under-represented minorities and women to enter the engineering field. She also organized the National Science Foundation’s First Women in engineering Leadership Conference. She returned to the Washington area in 2003 to work at AID, where in addition to her role on the global climate change team, she also provided technical support on a range of climate-related issues to missions in Asia and the Near East and was a U.S. delegate to negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Dr. Ruppe received her doctorate in 2005. Read More.

Obituary for Jamaica RPCV Bonita 'Bonnie' Mather
Bonnie's life was rich with service to others. After nursing school, her nursing career began in the early 1950s with assignments in Billings, Williston, North Dakota, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. She received her bachelor of science degree in elementary/special education at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and her master's in special education from Eastern Montana College in Billings, going on to teach regular and special education for Great Falls Public Schools until 1972. She also piloted the first elementary program for the emotionally disturbed. Bonnie again returned to nursing at the Montana Deaconess Medical Center (now Benefis East) in various units from 1985 to 1993. In 1995, Bonnie joined the Peace Corps and served two years in Jamaica as a primary health care and health education nurse. Bonnie retired to her residence in Monarch, where her intelligent wit, keen sense of humor, and desire to give to others made her a fast friend to the community. Read more.

Obituary for Pakistan RPCV Richard Bowman
After returning to the United States, he was among the first employees of the Peace Corps, joining in 1961. For two years, he spoke at college campuses and gave television and radio interviews throughout the country recruiting for the Peace Corps. He served with the organization in Pakistan from 1963 to 1966. Read more.

Obituary for Togo Medical Officer Albert E. Henn
He had been a Peace Corps medical officer in Togo in 1968 before working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. During 1970 and 1971, he served as regional medical officer for the Peace Corps in Washington, where he recruited, hired and trained Peace Corps medical staff and helped to formulate Peace Corps health policies; coordinated international emergency care; represented the Peace Corps with other government agencies; and conducted clinical research. Read more.

Obituary for Thailand RPCV Henry Ginsburg, Curator of Thai and Cambodian Collections at the British Library
Introduced to Asia with a stay in India, Ginsburg nevertheless studied Russian at Columbia, then joined the US Peace Corps, which sent him to Thailand. There he taught English in the provincial town of Chachoengsao, 1964-66. His interest subsequently took him to the only viable academic institution where he could pursue the topic of Thai literature, namely the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Under the guidance of Stuart Simmonds, he wrote a dissertation on a set of embedded Thai fables, progeny of the Sanskrit Pancatantra, that, as can be learned from his 1975 scholarly article on the subject, serve to discourage humans from allowing identities to be perverted (don't marry a nymph, and remember that the mythic Garuda bird lost his credibility when he allowed the birds he ruled over to see him featherless while moulting). Read more.

Obituary for Malaysia RPCV Norman Leo Haug
He served in the Peace Corps from 1964 to 1966 and was stationed on a Malaysian island where he was often the only physician for a population of several thousand. After the Peace Corps, he joined the Army. While serving in Vietnam, he narrowly survived the Tet Offensive. He was a volunteer physician after the 1998 Hurricane Mitch in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and received many awards including the Colorado Rural Health Excellence Award in 1999, the Civis Princeps Award from Regis University in 2001 and the National Rural Health Practioner of the Year in 2003. Read more.

Memorial tree planted for Uzbekistan RPCV Melissa Reynolds
Reynolds, who was in her second year of the sociology and anthropology masters program, was studying to become a historical archeologist when she came to ISU in 2005. Born in the Netherlands, Reynolds joined the Peace Corps for two years and taught English to elementary students in Uzbekistan before attending ISU. She aspired to become an archaeologist when she was in elementary school and was well on her way to achieving that goal. Read more.

Obituary for Colombia RPCV Bill Bullard
Mr. Bullard retired in 1976, and he and his wife promptly joined the Peace Corps, spending 1 and a half years in Colombia helping to plan new national parks there. Most of the volunteers were much younger, but "we could keep up with them pretty well," Jean Bullard said. Read more.

Obituary for Chile RPCV Charles Grier Johnson Jr.
After graduating from Glassboro High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in forest resource management from the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1967 then joined the Peace Corps and served in Chile. While in Chile, he met and wed Angelica Gonzalez Sotomayor. Read more.

Obituary for Poland and Sierra Leone RPCV Ellen Elliot
Mrs. Elliott's passion for social causes provided the framework for an adventurous life. Her charity work took her to West Africa, Nigeria, India and Poland. In the Bay Area, she championed fair redistricting rules in state government, opened educational opportunities to poor children on the Peninsula, started a message service for inmates at the San Mateo County Jail, fed the poor in East Palo Alto, and, as the public face of the League of Women Voters, advocated for more open government on television and radio.  She tried her hand at book publishing, after returning to the Peace Corps with her husband to help promote tourism in Poland during its transition back to democracy in 1991. While she was leading community-building groups there, Mrs. Elliott was also editing a book about the history of the large prewar Jewish community in the area, "Jewish Bialystok and Surroundings in Eastern Poland." The book was favorably reviewed by the New York Times and is now in its second edition. Read more.

Obituary for Somalia RPCV Laurence Bourassa who led Catholic Relief Services in Cambodia during the bloody era of the infamous killing fields
Mr. Bourassa's life was most notably shaped by two episodes, friends and colleagues said - his stint in Somalia with the first group of Peace Corps volunteers, which first gave him a taste for overseas humanitarian work, and two harrowing years he spent in Cambodia during the bloody era of the infamous killing fields. He first went to Cambodia in 1973, as the conflict in Vietnam was spilling across the border and the brutal Khmer Rouge communist regime was gaining power. Mr. Bourassa was in charge of field operations for Catholic Relief Services, where he worked for 40 years. He provided food, medical assistance and water to Cambodians who were fleeing to government-controlled pockets of the country. He set up a relief operation and field hospital in Neak Loeung, where he briefly was stranded in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge was shelling the city round the clock. "We were in a siege situation," said Pat Johns, the director of emergency operations for CRS and a fellow worker in Cambodia. "We couldn't get a chopper in there to get them out." Mr. Bourassa and several medical personnel finally escaped via helicopter just 12 hours before the city fell to the Khmer Rouge. "When the helicopter landed in Phnom Penh it was a sight to behold," Mr. Johns said. "It was shot to hell. There were bullet holes all over." Read more.

Obituary for Lesotho RPCV Ruth Dunn
In 1984, Ruth Dunn joined the Peace Corps and went to Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa, said her son. "You have to remember that South Africa was in upheaval with apartheid," he said. "Nelson Mandela was in prison. Lesotho was not a place you wanted to be." Dunn, described as "about as big as a bird," thrived. Assigned to set up business cooperatives, she became a beloved and trusted member of the community. "Everyone called her 'Miss Ruth,' " her son said. "She adopted a dog she called Chang II after her cat Chang at home, and they went everywhere together. It was the best time of her life. " Read more.

Obituary for Tonga RPCV Ervin "Duane" Lassen
Duane received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from ISU in 1972 and, after serving in the Peace Corps in Tonga, he returned to ISU, where he completed a residency in veterinary clinical pathology and obtained his Ph.D. Duane was an avid runner, weight lifter and scuba diver. He biked the Leadville 100 and was an avid sports fan. Beyond his hobbies and his career, Duane's great love was his family, and he will be missed as a son, husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend and teacher. Read more.

Obituary for Ethiopia RPCV  Claudette Renner
It was natural for Claudette Renner, who passed away Feb. 6, to find ways to help others. She dedicated her life to helping others who couldn't help themselves. She was an active member of the Peace Corps volunteering in Ethiopia from 1965-1967. After Africa, she came back to the United States as a social worker in the Appalachian Mountains. Read more.

Obituary for Mali RPCV Clarence Wilson
Clarence Wilson, born in 1916, was inspired by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh to join the Navy as a pilot. After fighting in World War II, Wilson continued working for the Navy until he was hired in the early 1960s to work on unmanned space exploration by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He helped launch a satellite in 1963 that allowed the United States to watch the 1964 Olympics from Tokyo, his wife said. When Wilson's first wife died, he joined the Peace Corps in Mali, where he taught agriculture. "He had to learn French in no time flat, because that is what they spoke," his wife said. "He joined the Peace Corps to get his life back together." Read more.

Returned Volunteers and Staff honor Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins at Memorial Service

Returned Volunteers and Staff honor Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins at Memorial Service
Returned Volunteers and Staff came to the "Bull Run Unitarian Universalists' Church" in Manassas, Virginia from all over the United States on May 4 to attend a Memorial Service honoring Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins.

Mrs. Edna Wiggins and her children greeted guests at the door of the church.  Inside the church Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff like former Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn, former Peace Corps Country Director for Ethiopia and Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford,  former Country Director for Togo and Niger and later Peace Corps Africa Regional Director and President of Africare C. Payne Lucas and his wife, Sierra Leone RPCV and NPCA Chairman Emertisus Pat Reilly and her husband Philippines RPCV Dick Irish, NPCA President and Thailand RPCV Kevin Quigley, and David Arnold, Editor of NPCA's Worldview magazine. Other RPCV and Staff attending included Kevin Lowther of Africare, Gretchen Handwerger, Ruth McKennzie Scott, B. J. Warren, and Carolyn Ramsey.

The Memorial Service began at 1 pm with Gathering Music played by Annease Hastings on the piano. Reverend Lou Mitchell gave the Opening Words and Prayer of Thanksgiving. After the choir and congregation sang "Gather the Spirit", John Bender read a selection from the writings of Warren Wiggins from a boy of 6 who wanted to "lasso the moon" to a young man who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II flying transport planes "over the Hump" in the China-India-Burma theater and received a Distinguished Flying Cross. The choir sang the anthem "Fire of Committment."

Philippines RPCV Dick Irish asked how many members of the memorial service had served either in the Peace Corps or with TransCentury and then gave his personal tribute to Warren Wiggiins remembering  how Wiggins gave him his first job at Peace Corps Headquarters after he returned after his service in the Philippines, how he went with Wiggins to the first TransCentury offices in Washington DC, Wiggins' management style, and the first government contracts. Faye Cowan rose and read excerpts from a letter from a group in Sierra Leone who came together through TransCentury and are still working for the goals of social justice twenty years later.

After the BRVV Adult Chior sang "God in my Head," Reverend Nancy McDonald Ladd gave the eulogy to Warren Wiggins recalling his many contributions and the love his family and friends had for him. After the service, the Wiggins famiy invited all the guests to stay for light refreshments in the Fellowship Hall after the memorial service.

Warren Wiggins once said of former Peace Corps Director Jack Hood Vaughn (right with Africare President emeritus C. Payne Lucas): "I worked more with Vaughn than any other person in my life, four separate long-term assignments, back to back.  Mostly I have co-workers; Vaughn was a friend.  Vaughn and I traveled at length in Bolivia together, the two of us, when we were both in the ICA Mission to Bolivia.  He's got a lot of Teddy Roosevelt in him.  He was a former prizefighter.  On the other hand, he's cautious, conservative and sometimes not terribly involved in some of the broader sweep of things.  Vaughn stands up and is counted and is determined.  He is a good administrator.  he is an excellent person. He is my friend." Read more.

Read the Obituary for Warren Wiggins.  In 1961, Mr. Wiggins, who became one of the top leaders of the high-profile agency in its earliest years, was an unknown foreign policy adviser whose brief paper, "The Towering Task," landed in the lap of the Peace Corps' first director, R. Sargent Shriver, just as he was trying to figure out how to turn President John F. Kennedy's campaign promise into a working federal department. The response to it became legendary in the agency as "the midnight ride of Warren Wiggins." Shriver, burrowing through correspondence shortly after midnight on Feb. 6, 1961, was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. A small agency was more likely to fail because its projects would not be consequential enough, Mr. Wiggins wrote. Using specific examples, with a proposed staff size and budget, Mr. Wiggins suggested that Kennedy act through an executive order for the quickest start. "Shriver from the beginning saw him as someone who had the spirit of moving big and fast," former senator Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who was there, said in an interview. "The Peace Corps, small and symbolic, might be good public relations, but a Peace Corps that was large and had a major impact on problems in other countries could transform the economic development of the world."

Read excerpts from "A Towering Task."  Most of the academic and other institutional approaches to the opportunity of the National Peace Corps suggest tentative pilot projects, involving small numbers of people and consequently a limited political, economic and psychological impact. This cautious approach is proposed by many because of the clear possibility of a fiasco. The organization and administration of a large number of Americans working on a variety of programs and projects in many countries with varying cultures and needs undeniably is an extremely complex and difficult undertaking. It is the prevailing view that if a great many Americans are scattered abroad and if significant numbers of them fail either in their own eyes or in the eyes of the recipient peoples, or if large numbers of the Americans have severe health, emotional or other problems, the resulting criticism will extend far beyond the project per se.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate consideration of a "quantum jump" in the thinking and programming concerning the National Peace Corps. Its postulate is that America ought to consider initiating the program with several thousand Americans participating in the first 12 to 18 months - say, 5,000 to 10,000. The ultimate level of manpower to be utilized in this program will of course depend upon its initial success and difficulties. However, the potential of this program is great and it may prove to be the case that it should be at the 30,000, the 50,000 or possibly even at the 100,000 level. Even this latter higher level Corps over the past 35 would mean that only one out of every 30 youths would serve in the Peace Corps.

Caption: Mrs. Edna Wiggins, widow of Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins, with (left to right) Director Jack Vaughn, Senator Harris Wofford, and Peace Corps Online Co-Editor Hugh Pickens near the end of the reception.  All Photos:  PCOL  Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0.

Warren Wiggins: Architect of the Peace Corps

Obituary for Warren Wiggins, Architect of the Peace Corps
Warren W. Wiggins, 84, the major architect and organizer of the Peace Corps who wrote the basic philosophical document that shaped its mission, died of atypical Parkinson's syndrome April 13 at his home in Haymarket.

In 1961, Mr. Wiggins, who became one of the top leaders of the high-profile agency in its earliest years, was an unknown foreign policy adviser whose brief paper, "A Towering Task," landed in the lap of the Peace Corps' first director, R. Sargent Shriver, just as he was trying to figure out how to turn President John F. Kennedy's campaign promise into a working federal department.

The response to it became legendary in the agency as "the midnight ride of Warren Wiggins." Shriver, burrowing through correspondence shortly after midnight on Feb. 6, 1961, was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. A small agency was more likely to fail because its projects would not be consequential enough, Mr. Wiggins wrote. Using specific examples, with a proposed staff size and budget, Mr. Wiggins suggested that Kennedy act through an executive order for the quickest start.

Shriver fired off a telegram at 3 a.m., directing Mr. Wiggins to appear later that morning at the Mayflower Hotel, where he had his office. When Mr. Wiggins appeared, he was astonished to find that his exposition had been mimeographed and distributed to Shriver's task force. According to the 1994 work "A History of National Service in America," Shriver ordered everyone to read the paper, then said it came closer to expressing his views than anything he had seen.

"Shriver from the beginning saw him as someone who had the spirit of moving big and fast," former senator Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who was there, said in an interview. "The Peace Corps, small and symbolic, might be good public relations, but a Peace Corps that was large and had a major impact on problems in other countries could transform the economic development of the world."

At the time, Mr. Wiggins was a 38-year-old deputy director of Far East operations in the International Cooperation Administration, just the sort of bureaucrat the new administration disdained. But he was no stereotype; he was "totally dissatisfied with the manner in which American overseas programs were run," wrote John Coyne, a historian of the Peace Corps.  Read more.

Excerpts from "A Towering Task"
"Many Americans feel that there is a necessity to add another "tool" or "resource" to those presently available for accomplishing needed changes abroad. Not only do we need to bring another kind of asset to bear on our foreign problems, there is an urgency in these problems that demands we move more quickly. The National Peace Corps is a program that will allow the United States to move faster in many situations. This progress often requires the availability of large numbers of personnel, which would be provided under this program. The National Peace Corps would provide another way to expand education, to build a road, to promote 4-H Clubs, or to eradicate malaria. As such it holds forth the promise of potential accomplishment abroad of great importance to America."

"Less discussed but perhaps of great significance is the possibility that as Americans serve abroad over a period of time they become more oriented to the world scene and are better prepared to participate in world affairs. Many draw a parallel to the impact of American attitudes of having 14 million Americans under arms in World War II, a considerable portion of whom served abroad."

"Most of the academic and other institutional approaches to the opportunity of the National Peace Corps suggest tentative pilot projects, involving small numbers of people and consequently a limited political, economic and psychological impact. This cautious approach is proposed by many because of the clear possibility of a fiasco. The organization and administration of a large number of Americans working on a variety of programs and projects in many countries with varying cultures and needs undeniably is an extremely complex and difficult undertaking. It is the prevailing view that if a great many Americans are scattered abroad and if significant numbers of them fail either in their own eyes or in the eyes of the recipient peoples, or if large numbers of the Americans have severe health, emotional or other problems, the resulting criticism will extend far beyond the project per se."

"In other words, it is here postulated that a "small," "cautious" National Peace Corps may be worse that no Peace Corps at all. It may not receive the attention and talent it will require even for preventing trouble. A. slow, cautious start may maximize the chance of failure. A small, cautious National Peace Corps may be a diversionary path of inconsequential accomplishment and major administrative and diplomatic trouble."

"The purpose of this paper is to advocate consideration of a "quantum jump" in the thinking and programming concerning the National Peace Corps. Its postulate is that America ought to consider initiating the program with several thousand Americans participating in the first 12 to 18 months - say, 5,000 to 10,000. The ultimate level of manpower to be utilized in this program will of course depend upon its initial success and difficulties. However, the potential of this program is great and it may prove to be the case that it should be at the 30,000, the 50,000 or possibly even at the 100,000 level. Even this latter higher level Corps over the past 35 would mean that only one out of every 30 years. (?) youths would serve in the Peace Corps."

"Such a national effort on the part of the United States can not be undertaken easily or without a great deal of thought and preparation. This paper does not advocate that there is a clear conclusion that we ought to have a large National Peace Corps. What it does advocate is that a National Peace Corps starting on a small scale and growing, say, to the 5,000 level on a worldwide basis, is a marginal undertaking and may, on balance, cause more trouble than it is worth. Because this paper postulates that there is a large and fundamental motivation behind the Peace Corps idea of national and international importance, it advocates making a real assessment of the relative value and cost of starting large and accelerating to the extent that the program's contribution is commensurate with its cost."

"The Executive Branch should decide that the Peace Corps will be launched in calendar year 1961 and at a level sufficiently large to: 1) Assure maximum chance of success; 2) demonstrate that major activities can be undertaken in particular countries; and 3) test the wisdom of a variety of types of approaches and activities. Thus, it is believed that in February President Kennedy should decide that, even in advance of legislation and formal administrative structure, the Peace Corps will be launched with a major Presidential statement or speech, that a call for volunteers will be thus issued, that preparatory work for a series of specific pilot projects will begin, that screening of applicants will be under way, that to the extent necessary appropriate contracts will be negotiated and that selected foreign governments will be contacted."

"The Administrator of the National Peace Corps would be charged with the development of an immediate program which would look toward the utilization of, say, 5,000 to 10,000 youths in the next 12 to 18 months. Certain major projects should be undertaken, such as the Philippines proposal contained in this paper, which would utilize 1,000 youths the first year. Probably a parallel English teaching program for Nigeria ought to be instituted immediately, involving another thousand teachers. The National Peace Corps could also be effectively used in health programs such as malaria eradication and smallpox vaccination, particularly in Africa. The existing voluntary agency programs for youths abroad should be expanded as rapidly as possible to absorb up to an additional thousand youths in the next 18 months. Maximum utilization should be made of National Peace Corps personnel in the regular "Point IV" activities of ICA abroad in some 60 countries, which could probably make use of 1,000 youths in the next 18 months. Likewise, Peace Corps personnel could be attached to the 40 university contracts abroad, adding, for example, another 300 to 400 to the total."

"These and the host of other activities that have been suggested should be carefully screened and selected projects initiated. The actual final number to be enrolled in the Peace Corps in the first 12 to 18 months should of course depend upon the volume of good programs that can be developed and successfully administered."

Read the original document "A Towering Task" that shaped the Peace Corps' mission.

Read John Coyne's special issue of "Peace Corps Writers" commemorating "A Towering Task."

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Peru RPCV Keith McNeill
In late 1960s, the country was embroiled in the civil rights movement. Keith McNeill graduated from college and moved straight to the heart of racial conflict in Alabama and Mississippi. He lived with an black Baptist minister and worked organizing labor unions . From there, McNeill joined the Peace Corps, which took him to Peru in 1965. He organized a coffee cooperative and formed relationships with the residents there. He later returned to visit the families he'd helped. But McNeill also volunteered in his own backyard. He moved to Greeley about 30 years ago and spent many hours dedicated to movements throughout Weld County. "Whenever he saw a cause that was worth fighting, he was right there," his daughter, América McNeill, said.

Obituary for Malawi RPCV Bobbie Mullinix Miles
She was a former high school basketball coach and teacher in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Her last position was girls' basketball coach and physical education teacher at West Montgomery High School. She retired after 36 years of service in public education. She was a member of the West Montgomery Sports Hall of Fame. After retiring she spent three years in the Peace Corps. in Malawi.

Obituary for Chile RPCV Janet Berkenfield
After graduate studies at Stanford, Ms. Berkenfield joined the Peace Corps in 1965, developing health programs in Chile. Janet Berkenfield was a dedicated public health professional who worked to help immigrants, young mothers, and children during a career that lasted more than 40 years. "Janet had a true gift in starting up new projects and in administering the details of their implementation," Cindy Rogers, Ms. Berkenfield's supervisor at the state Department of Public Health and colleague of 14 years, said in a statement. "She worked tirelessly to bring the reality of her vision of systems that worked for the benefit of children."

Obituary for Philippines RPCV Linda Laighton Bahr
A graduate of MacMurray Collge in Jacksonville, Ill., Mrs. Bahr taught hearing-impaired students through the Northwestern Illinois Association. She took a break from teaching in Illinois schools to teach the hearing impaired in the Philippines from 1985 to 1987 by volunteering for the Peace Corps. Her two-year stint in the Philippines allowed her to learn about another culture firsthand and ignited an interest in world travel. She went on to visit Nepal, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru and Thailand "She liked going to places that other people don't necessarily find comfortable," explained Larry Bahr.

Obituary for Senegal RPCV Ruth Chapin Wolfe
After working 20 years as a bookkeeper and raising her children, she decided to go to college. She obtained her Bachelor of Science from Florida State University in Tallahassee. In her 50s and unable to obtain employment with her social welfare college degree, she joined the Peace Corps. She was assigned by the Peace Corps to Calack, Senegal where she spent two years teaching English to the Wolof speaking students of Calack.

Obituary for Togo RPCV Paul McKenzie
From 1975 to 1978, he taught English, coached basketball and developed a tree nursery as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, in West Africa. The Peace Corps, his wife said, was one of the formative experiences of his life. In 1980, he moved to Washington, where he joined the Department of the Navy. At the time of his death, he was deputy director for technology integration for the Naval Surface Warfare Center of the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Obituary for Somalia RPCV Charlie Nelson
After a tour together in the Peace Corps, the Nelsons -- who met while earning their degrees at the University of Minnesota -- went house shopping. He wanted a Victorian that was "untouched," Angie Nelson recalled Sunday, but he discovered the real estate agent was steering the couple clear of a fatigued section of North Minneapolis, where Nelson ended up finding a house he loved so much he purchased it on sight. "When we moved in, Minneapolis was tearing everything down around us," she said of the neighborhood. "We recruited our friends to come in and buy them up." And so began the Old Highland Neighborhood Association. Nelson joined the Historical Society that same year and supervised the statewide survey for the National Register of Historic Places. In 1974, he became the state architectural historian and in 1978, the historical architect.

Obituary for Korea RPCV David Alvord III
He and his former wife Rosemary Kirwin-Alvord served for two years in Korea, were Peace Corps recruiters in Seattle and later held administrative positions in Micronesia. Having become fluent in Korean, David taught English to South Korean Air Force pilots. Prior to his death, he completed an assignment in South Korea, where he was teaching South Korean educators English teaching methods.

Andrew Salmon writes: "He came to Korea with the first U.S. Peace Corps contingent in 1966. Stationed in rural Kangwon Province, he fell in love with the country and its people. A photograph from that time shows him carrying an A-frame, surrounded by grinning farmers. In 2002, he returned here to teach English. I am not sure what brought him back. Perhaps he had been financially unsuccessful; he certainly never had much money (though it never bothered him). He also had little time for technology. He despised cell phones, and when I set up a hotmail account for him, he insisted that he knew how to use it, but (as far as I know) never did. What he did have was time for people. His enthusiasm for travel, mountain hiking, athletics, dogs, and, of course, his beloved Korea and Idaho were infectious. Several times, just seeing his figure in the distance -- or hearing his booming voice, which preceded him by a considerable distance -- would bring smiles to faces. My four-year-old daughter loved being around him."

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Liberia RPCV D. Michael Van De Veer
On December 19, 2006, shortly after returning to Hawaii from Nepal where he was working as an independent journalist, D. Michael Van De Veer died from an infection from which he could not recover.  An active member of SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association), Van De Veer was a long time social activist around the world and best known as the colorful and compassionate voice of Kauai Community Radio KKCR’s weekly “Out of the Box” call in talk show.  But as large as his presence in radio was, Michael was also very active as a journalist, writing and reporting for Pacifica’s Free Speech Radio News, UnitedWeBlog, Voice of Democratic Nepal and other independent news outlets.  An active member of SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association), Michael frequently traveled to and wrote about, social and political affairs in Nepal.  A KKCR website biography notes that Michael was a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia and the former Planning Director of Santa Cruz County, CA.  Michael served on KKCR’s Board of Directors and was active in supporting charitable causes in Nepal. 

Obituary for India RPCV Ken Miller
There was another side of Ken Miller known best to his neighbors in Morgan County. He was a farmer and a dedicated citizen. His sense of service had been honed in India as a member of the Peace Corps for two years. He was on the board of the Morgan County Hospital and a member of the Mooresville Nature Club.

Obituary for Ecuador RPCV Jack Thornborrow
Thornborrow's life of service may have begun after college when he volunteered in agriculture for the Peace Corps in Ecuador. He met his wife, Darcy, in London, and they traveled to Afghanistan, where they taught English. They married in the Katmandu Valley in Nepal before returning to the United States and moving with his family to Buhl in 1974. In the early 1990s, Thornborrow bridged his agricultural background with local politics and took a seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission. "I think my dad was one of the most fair people you would ever meet," Jenah said. "He would make decisions to his detriment if he knew they were right. In the farm, he made those decisions as well as in the bigger community."

Obituary for Costa Rica RPCV Langdon Barone
After graduating from West Virginia University, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica. From 1985 to 1998, he worked overseas with the Department of State. In 1998, he was sworn in as a Foreign Service Officer and had postings in Dakar, Senegal and Washington, D.C., where he was serving at the time of his death.

Obituary for Venezuela RPCV Debbie Jirak
After graduating from Temple University with a degree in Spanish, Mrs. Jirak became one of America's first Peace Corps volunteers, working in a village in the Andes in Venezuela for two years. Returning to the United States, she earned her master's degree at Duquesne University and taught Spanish in a number of Pittsburgh Public Schools. That's where she met her husband, likewise a teacher and eventually a vice principal. The couple helped finance their 1981 honeymoon in the Galapagos Islands by arranging a tour group of 34 friends. That led them to start their own travel company. In a 1995 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on the agency, Mrs. Jirak said, "Adventure should not be reserved for the advantaged, nor should world travel be exclusively for the wealthy." Mrs. Jirak and her husband were sensitive to the various cultures they visited with their tours, holding several orientation sessions before trips to familiarize travelers with their destinations. "We find that people appreciate a trip more when they know what to expect and they become sensitive to the particular culture being visited," Mrs. Jirak said in the article. The couple visited the Galapagos numerous times and also traveled to China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Germany and the Arctic, among other locations. Mrs. Jirak would document their trips through photographs and writings. The Jiraks also hosted Mexican, Japanese and Inuit exchange students.

RPCV Paul Tsongas remembered on the 10th anniversary of his death

RPCV Paul Tsongas remembered on the 10th anniversary of his death
Ten years after Paul Tsongas died, Sen. John Kerry remembered the man he replaced in Congress as a “modest but incredibly forceful” politician.

“Paul was a very different kind of public person,” Kerry, D-Mass. said in a tribute speech on the Senate floor. “He walked his own path. Today, in remembering his loss, we join people in the Merrimack Valley and across Massachusetts and many more who came to appreciate and respect him through his presidential campaign. We honor a life that elevated those he knew and countless people he never met.”

“He ran one of the most bracingly honest and politically courageous presidential campaigns of our lifetimes,” Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, said of Tsongas. “His was a campaign defined by commonsense and that wry sense of humor more than fiery oratory. ... If he were with us today, Paul would be a strong voice, full of insight, humor, and wisdom.”

From 1997: Paul Tsongas Passes
Mark Shields: "Most Americans who run for President lose. And most Americans who lose leave that race--the presidential candidate--with their reputation, their stature, their popularity diminished. Paul Tsongas was that rarest of candidates. In 1992, he not only shaped the entire debate of that campaign, the fact that we’re seriously debating a balanced budget in 1997 is testimony to Paul Tsongas, who treated voters like grown-ups, albeit grown-ups with an unlimited capacity for cold showers and root canal work sometimes. He was very tough, very direct, but I mean, he thought more about being President than he did about running for President. He put his ideas in a book between covers, forced other candidates to do the same thing."

Judy Woodruff: "Here is someone who had a life threatening illness, cancer, who went off and had time to consider what is really important in life. You had time to spend more time with your family. Why would you then throw yourself back into the fray of this crazy schedule that a Presidential candidate that he has to out himself or herself through?"

Mike Barnicle: "I think we should really reflect on here was a man who was, you know, from the Lowell City Council to the Middlesex County commission which was, you know, a rather arcane function of government up here to the Congress, to the United States Senate, to a run for the presidency. He gave up an enormous amount of power that could have been his in 1984--he certainly could have won re-election--for his family. He chose his family over his career. He had a life apart from politics, which I think made him more interesting than many people who are in politics, and that’s all they are about as politics. Tsongas was about much more than politics." Read more.

About Paul Tsongas
Paul Tsongas was a Presidential Candidate, a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the United States Democratic Party. Tsongas was born to a working-class Greek father and native Massachusetts mother. He attended Dartmouth and Yale Law School before settling in Lowell, Massachusetts. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia in 1962-64, and as Peace Corps Country Director in the West Indies in 1967-68.

Tsongas first entered politics as a city councillor, elected to the Lowell City Council in 1969 and served two consecutive terms. Tsongas went on to serve as a county commissioner of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. In 1974 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, defeating Republican incumbent Paul Cronin. He served two terms in the House, and in 1978 he was elected to the Senate, defeating incumbent Edward Brooke. In 1983, however, he was diagnosed with cancer and in 1984 announced his retirement from the Senate. After fighting the illness he returned to politics and in 1992 ran for his party's nomination for President. He ran a strong campaign and succeeded in winning the New Hampshire primary, but was eventually eclipsed by a resurgent Bill Clinton (the "Comeback Kid"), who would go on to win the Presidency. Tsongas was viewed as social liberal and economic conservative. He was especially known for his pro-business economic policies that have come to be embraced by many in the modern Democratic Party. In particular, he focused on the United States budget deficit and its harmful effects, a cause he continued to champion after his primary campaign ended by co-founding The Concord Coalition.

A few years later the cancer returned and he died of pneumonia and liver failure.

Read more about Paul Tsongas.

Husband remembers Niger RPCV Mary Ann Hobson

Husband remembers Niger RPCV Mary Ann Hobson
"She was a person of many accomplishments - an artist most of all, a teacher and linguist who served in the Peace Corps in Africa, taught immigrant children in Australia, sang and acted, and brought a great sense of personal discipline and concentration to everything she tried to do. After her death, I felt a great sadness that many people never knew her - and a fear that what she was might quickly slip away."

"I am certain that many other families experienced the same sadness, the same fear after the deaths of their loved ones. But I am also certain that like me, they have come to realize that so much of those lives does not go away and cannot be negated, whatever we do or don't do to remember them. It is as though each of us contributes to a sort of "Butterfly Effect," by our actions subtly altering the world in ways we may never know or understand, but are real and indelible."

"In Mary Ann's case, I like to think that there are now-grown former students of hers around the world, from Africa to California to Australia, who now and then remember "Miss Hobson" and the high standards she insisted upon. Or that a student or researcher going through the stacks at Cal State San Bernardino may gain a flash of insight from something she wrote in her thesis on Emily Dickinson's poetry. Or that one of her richly thoughtful canvases will stir the soul and the imagination of another artist - or a musician or writer or scientist or child, for that matter. And then there is our son, whom she will not see graduate from high school but who will carry much of her spirit and outlook into what he does with his own life."

"Like these other Lives Remembered in 2006, she wasn't famous, but like them, she changed the world."

Read the rest of the remembrance.

Father of PCV Stephen Lotti, killed in Plane Crash in Peru in 2005, is searching for Monica Glenn who survived on the same flight

Father of PCV Stephen Lotti,  killed in Plane Crash in Peru in 2005, is searching for Monica Glenn who survived on the same flight
We received the following message which we have been asked to post on our Bulletin Board:

"My name is David Lotti. Stephen Lotti was my son who died in the plane crash in Peru 8/23/05. My attorney would very much like to contact Ms. Monica Glenn and talk with her about that day. Since both Steve and Ms. Glenn served in the Peace Corps we feel that at some point in the flight they may have made a connection. If you have a means of contacting her, please have her contact me at jblotti AT comcast.net OR David M. Lotti 115 Ashton Park, Peachtree City, Ga 30269. Phone 770-486-8502. Thanks for your help in this matter."

RPCVs Monica Glenn and Steve Lotti were traveling separately on a flight in Peru in 2005 that crashed near Pucallpa. Steve Lotti lost his life while Monica Glenn and her husband survived with second degree burns.

Monica Glenn served as a volunteer in China, her family is from the Orange County area, and her husband William Zea-Palacios is Bolivian. They were living in Arequipa, Peru a year and a half ago. If anyone in the RPCV community knows how to get in touch with Monica Glenn, please pass this message on to them.

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Colombia RPCV James W. Thomas
He graduated from high school in Oakdale and went on to serve in the Peace Corps in Colombia. Jim is remembered by all who knew him as a man of few words. He never hesitated to lend a helping hand, whether it was moving equipment for a gymnastics meet, painting sets for plays, or going on stage as a pageant dad. He never complained about doing any ridiculous thing that the women in his life asked of him. He was a wonderful father, husband and friend. The real Jim left us several years ago, and he has been greatly missed by us all.

Obituary for Malaysia RPCV David Behm
Behm enjoyed the outdoors, cooking, his extended family and, of course, music. He was a member of the Angel Band, a Celtic music group and performed regularly throughout the Seacoast area. He was a Friday night regular at the Press Room in Portsmouth for many years and read the Declaration of Independence at Demmons Store and the West Nottingham Post Office on July 4th also for many years. His last CD, Hellfire and Behmnation, a tribute to a fellow musician Chip Chase, is available locally and shows his variety of style and musicianship.  Behm was a US Marine from 1956 to 1958 and a union bricklayer for many years. He discovered wood turning and in 1985 opened his own woodworking and chairmaking shop. He served in the Peace Corps with his family in Sarawak, East Malaysia in the early 1970's. He was also a Justice of the Peace for many years whose last official act was officiating at the marriage of his son on December 1.

Obituary for India RPCV Dennis Best
He joined the Peace Corps and traveled to India, where he was first exposed to eastern philosophies of healing. It was in California where Dennis became a member of the Baha'i Faith in 1970, captivated by its universal principles centering on the oneness of God, of religion, and of humanity. While researching Chinese medicine and acupuncture, he lived with his family in China from 1994-1996.

Obituary for Ethiopia RPCV William Giacofci
After earning his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1966, he served in the Peace Corps for three years as a legal adviser to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, according to his family. Mr. Giacofci enjoyed reading and genealogy and was also an accomplished artist who created oil paintings in religious themes. He was a communicant of St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Queenstown, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered.

"Peace Corps Online" and NPCA collaborate on story "Snowshoe Bob" in Worldview Magazine

"Peace Corps Online" and NPCA collaborate on story "Snowshoe Bob" in Worldview Magazine
Robert Paul died September 8 of this year when a suicide car-bomber struck his Humvee in Kabul, Afghanistan. Sgt. Paul was in his third year of active duty in the Army reserves and had completed two years in Iraq commanding a civil affairs unit in Baghdad. Paul had also served in Peace Corps in Kenya and last year, while studying Thai at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, joined a 2005 e-mail debate peacecorpsonline.com (sic) about Peace Corps as an incentive for military recruitment. Read more.

He served with honor
One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on "Peace Corps Online" on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. Read the original discussion with Bob Paul on "Peace Corps Online" here.

Friends and Family remembers Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Robert Paul killed in Afghanistan
Paul's mother said her son never stopped charting his own path, whether it was taking German when French and Spanish were the only languages offered, or announcing over dinner that he had joined the Peace Corps. "His first year there, he learned Swahili, and that's a very hard language, I understand," she said. "Then when that year was up, he called and said he was staying another year."  When he left for Afghanistan "I asked, 'Is there anybody I can call to get you out,'" his mother recalled tearfully. "He said, 'You don't understand; I want to go.' Kenya RPCV Robert Paul worked in a Civil Affairs unit in Afghanistan.  He was killed in a car bombing in 2006. Read more.

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for St. Vincent and Hungary RPCV Verona McCrary Thomas
Ms. Thomas served in the Peace Corps from age 67-69 as a librarian in St. Vincent and 74-75 as an English teacher in Hungary.

Parents plant seeds of caring for Armenia RPCV Carrie Jane Dulin
The Dulins' daughter, Carrie Jane, died in a car crash on her 28th birthday, Aug. 5, 2003, en route to a new assignment in Nigeria. She had spent five years as a Peace Corps and World Vision worker in Armenia. A year after her death, the Dulins took a trip to Armenia to deliver money donated in their daughter's name to two orphanages in Sissian and Spitak. They purchased appliances for the kitchen in Spitak and an organ for the orphanage in Sissian. They also took part of Carrie's ashes and spread them at a deserted monastery near Sissian. As they left the orphanages, they asked the directors what they could do to make a difference in the lives of the children there. They were told that the children at both orphanages needed warm clothing for the winter, when they are forced to bundle up in bed and stay home from school because the buildings aren't heated. Last year, the Dulins' church, Doylestown United Methodist, organized a coat campaign and collected about 30 boxes of coats that were shipped to Armenia through the United Methodist Committee on Relief, just after Hurricane Katrina.

Obituary for Ethiopia Country Director Henry Donald Wilson
Mr. Wilson graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948 and worked for two years as a lawyer before becoming a regional organizer for the United World Federalists, an international peace movement. In 1955, he joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, and joined Arthur D. Little in 1960. Mr. Wilson took a leave from Arthur D. Little in 1964, when he was appointed by R. Sargent Shriver as a Peace Corps director in Ethiopia.

Obituary for Togo RPCV John Peter D'Agostino
He worked as a freelance artist as well as a Peace Corps Rural Development Volunteer in West Africa. John also worked in many facets at The Ohio State University in addition to working at the BakeHouse Richmond and Dunbar Elementary Schools in Florida, The Historical Museum of Southern Florida, the Miami-Dade Community College, Pine Villa Elementary in Florida and at Enka Schools in Istanbul, Turkey. He spent his life learning and teaching.

Obituary for Malaysia RPCV Ross Pelton
Ross Pelton taught chemistry in Malaysia through the Peace Corps. He said his parents and sister visited him there and quickly fell in love with international travel. Like everything else in life, Pelton and his wife traveled with gusto once they got started, eventually visiting all 50 U.S. states, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand and China. Pelton served as principal at Logan with no assistants, Fregin said, and volunteered to coach the school's football team as well. He said the school, which then held grades 7 through 9, had more than 800 students at the time. "That was his life," Fregin said of Pelton's commitment to the school. "He devoted everything to that."

Obituary for Belize RPCV Charlene Andrews
Andrews, known internationally for her support of Oregon's Death with Dignity law, wanted to keep helping people even after her death. In lieu of flowers, Andrews had asked people to bring children's books to donate to a library she created while serving in the Peace Corps in Belize.