Archive - 2012

Ann Stevens was interviewed on CNN’s “Out Front” last night. Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) one of our bloggers on this site captured the link to the “Out Front” program. Ann mentions the Peace Corps towards the end of the interview. Briefly, she said that the Peace Corps Community, Volunteers, staff and RPCVs are looking for the best way to honor her brother by increasing cross-cultural awareness and appreciation.  That is not a direct quote; but the efforts of the Peace Corps Community were acknowledged by her. She said this in the context of a conversation she had with a high ranking official in the State Department. Here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2012/11/09/erin-bts-anne-stevens-intv.cnn  

Dear Members of the Peace Corps family: Given your continued outpouring of support and concern for honoring U.S. Ambassador and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) Chris Stevens, I would like to reiterate the essence of my earlier message to those who have written more recently and to update everyone on our plans for honoring and remembering Ambassador Stevens. Through your support and concern for Ambassador Stevens, you have made evident that his tragic death was keenly felt within the  Peace Corps community, and you have reminded me of how close a family we are at the Peace Corps.  You have also heartened the Stevens family by your outpouring of support. As I mentioned in my earlier email message to you, the Peace Corps has been in touch with the Stevens family since just after Ambassador Stevens’ tragic death.  With them, we have begun a conversation on the most appropriate manner . . .

Joe Kennedy III won the race to replace retiring Representative Barney Frank in the Fourth Congressional District of Massachusetts. Kennedy, a Democrat (of course!), is the great-nephew of JFK and Senator Edward Kennedy. He went to Harvard Law School and was in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Most recently he was an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts’ Middlesex County. Kennedy, 32, is among the youngest members of Congress. He won easily. Kennedy joins two term Congressman, John Garamendi (Ethiopia 1965-67) of California third District, who also won by more than 10 points. RPCV Sam Farr (Colombia 1964-66) won in California, as did Mike Honda (El Salvador 1965-67), also of California, and Republican Tom Petri (Somalia 1966-67) won in Wisconsin. It is possible that I missed an RPCV in the house and senate, if so, let me know.

George Packer (Togo 1982-83) has a long and fascinating profile piece entitled, “Washington Man” in the October 29 & November 5, 2012 issue of The New Yorker. The profile is on Jeff Connaughton who came to Washington from Alabama in 1994 and was swept up into the political cycle, where, as George writes, he went “from public servant to rich lobbyist.” At the end of his “political career, (and near the end of his article,) Packer writes: “Outside, he [Connaughton] stood at the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets, exhilarated. He had just blown himself up in the heart of American finance. He would never again be a member of the permanent class. Connaughton’s Senate job ended in the middle of the month. He flew to Costa Rica and went on an eight-hour hike. When he returned to his hotel room, he took a long shower, letting the water soak him . . .

Tino Calabia (Peru, 1963-65) who rallied all of us RPCVs in support of Ambassador Christopher Stevens sent me a note about our collective efforts to reach 1000 signatures. He also noticed that the most recent signer–number 883–is Mary Pendleton who was a PCV in Tunisia and later became the first U.S Ambassador to Moldova. Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) established a petition at SignOn.org that we hope you will sign. This is what Tino had to say: Over 880, Going for 1,000 Signatures on ‘Honor Chris Stevens’ Petition The elections finally end tomorrow, yet RPCV/Ambassador Chris Stevens’ death in Libya may still come up in some post-election partisan gamesmanship.  So it remains up to RPCVs to try to illuminate Stevens’ service as a remarkable Peace Corps Volunteer, charismatic diplomat, and our fallen US Ambassador to Libya. Honoring Stevens by dedicating prominent space in his name at Peace Corps HQ may . . .

The New York Times obituary notice reads:”Jack Hood Vaughn, who led the Peace Corps at the height of its volunteer enrollment in the late 1960s, died on Monday at his home in Tucson. The cause was cancer.” The notice included this photograph of Vaughn taken in 1966 with President Johnson and Shriver. It’s a lengthy obituary, but does not tell the story of Vaughn at the Peace Corps. Only a novel could do Jack Hood Vaughn’s life full justice. Born and raised in Columbus, Montana, where the Yellowstone River pours out of the Rocky Mountains, Johnny Hood, as he called himself back then, felt an early attraction toward Mexico. “I was bumming around Mexico,” he told me later in his life, “and I ran out of money.  I decided I would take my boxing skills and turn pro, but I didn’t know enough Spanish at the time to tell whether . . .

[Jack Niedenthal’s first six years in the Marshall Islands were all spent in the isolated jungles of the outer islands. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer on Namu Atoll from 1981 to 1984. He then contracted to work with the Bikini Council on Kili Island from 1984 through late 1986 teaching English to the adults, teaching in the elementary school and working with the Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government Council.  In 1987 he assumed the duties of the Trust Liaison for the People of Bikini, which includes the management and coordination of the funds allocated by the United States government to compensate the Bikinians for their suffering and to facilitate the radiological cleanup of Bikini Atoll. He acts as a liaison for the Council to the media, the U.S. government and its various agencies, the scientists who work on Bikini, the Bikini Council’s attorney, trustees, money managers, construction companies, engineers, project managers, . . .

Below is a message that Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Acting Peace Corps Director asked us to pass along in response to the petition “Honor RPCV Ambassador Chris Stevens” ———————————————————— Thank you all for your outpouring of support and concern for honoring U.S. Ambassador and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) Chris Stevens.  You have reminded me of how close a family we are at the Peace Corps.  We have informed the Stevens family that hundreds of you (more than 888!) share their loss and are interested in honoring Ambassador Stevens — and they were very touched. The tragic death of Ambassador Stevens was a tremendous loss for our nation, and a loss that was keenly felt within the Peace Corps community.  After extending our condolences to the Stevens family, we contacted them to begin a conversation on the most appropriate manner to honor the life and memory of Ambassador Stevens.  There are a . . .

 This is from John Turnbull: Leveo Sanchez of Santa Fe has notified me that Jack Vaughn, the second Director of the Peace Corps,  has been taken ill at age 92 with terminal metastatic cancer, and has only days or weeks left. Jack is now in Hospice care at their home in Tucson, Arizona.  He would head the Peace Corps following Sargent Shriver’s appointment to head the domestic Poverty Program under the LBJ Administration, His service with the Peace Corps was a highlight of a distinguished foreign service career.  For that reason, I hope that many of us RPCVs can send an e-mail, via his wife, Leftie, acknowledging and thanking him for all that he did during those early years. Back then, the Peace Corps was not to be taken for granted, and excelled because of people like Jack Vaughn, and Sargent Shriver before him. It wasn’t long ago we assembled to say “good bye” to . . .