John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64)
John was with the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers to go to Ethiopia [as was Marian] and taught English in Addis Ababa. After completing his service, he worked for the Peace Corps in Washington, and then became an Associate Peace Corps Director in Ethiopia. He left the Peace Corps in 1967 to become Dean of Admissions and Students at the SUNY/Old Westbury, and later turned to writing full time. In 1987 he began publishing the newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers with Marian Haley Beil; in 1999 the newsletter morphed into the website Peace Corps Writers — which has just morphed into Peace Corps Worldwide. In 1995 John returned to the Peace Corps as Special Assistant to the Associate Director for Volunteer Support where he conceived and edited three essay books about the Peace Corps experience: To Touch the World, At Home in the World, and Peace Corps: The Great Adventure. While at the Peace Corps he wrote the concept paper that outlined a new role for Peace Corps Volunteers — the Crisis Corps, later renamed the Response Corps. In 1996 he was appointed Manager of the New York Peace Corps Recruitment Office. John, who is considered an authority on the history of the Peace Corps, has written or edited over twenty-five books including Going Up Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers and Living on the Edge: Fiction by Peace Corps Writers. John was a co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund — the non-profit foundation to support Third Goal activities of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and is a member of the board of Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCVs. John is the Manager of Communications for The College of New Rochelle, and is the author of over 25 books of fiction and non-fiction. John has two other blogs on this site: Peace Corps Writers, and The Arts: Writing.