Archive - August 9, 2017

   Congresswoman Niki Tsongas announces she will not run for reelection  by the Boston Herald’s Chris Villani Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, who has represented Lowell [MA] for nearly a decade, announced today that she will not run for reelection, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. Tsongas’s statement: I have learned in life that there is a time for endings and for new beginnings. After much thought, I have decided that this is one of those times. The time feels right most especially because of my desire to spend more time enjoying and celebrating my wonderful and growing family. Her late husband, Paul Tsongas (Ethiopia 1962-64), was a Democratic Congressman, and served as a Senator from Massachusetts. He made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1992 as Bill Clinton captured the party nomination on the way to winning two terms in the White House. Paul Tsongas died . . .

Before the first Conference for Returned PCVs, the Peace Corps sent out 3300 questionnaires and 2300 were returned. Gary Bergthold (Ethiopia 1962-64) who was in 1965 working in the Peace Corps Medical Division, and chairman of the conference committee that read and tabulated the questionnaires told the opening session, “Elmo Roper, the American pollster, couldn’t believe it. This tremendous response, plus the fact that 90 per cent of those who replied said they wanted to attend this conference.” He went on to say. “The first thing that becomes clear is the remarkable diversity of opinion among returned Volunteers. The greatest agreement on any one question was less than 15 per cent.”   This was most obvious at the plenary session when Sargent Shriver called to the podium Ruth Whitney (Ghana 1962-64) and let her have her say as the Peace Corp Volunteer reported in its April 1965 Volunteer Magazine. Ruth, . . .