Archive - October 2018

1
William Josephson, First Peace Corps Lawyer
2
Philippines’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part One)
3
EVERYWHERE STORIES: VOLUME III edited by Clifford Garstang (South Korea)
4
Charlie Peters, First Director of Peace Corps Evaluation
5
Richard Wiley (Korea) publishes TACOMA STORIES
6
“An Example for Government” (Part Two)
7
Kennedy signed Peace Corps Act — Up for Auction!
8
“An Example for Government” from Who’s Who in The Peace Corps
9
Who’s Who in The Peace Corps Washington
10
Ghana’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part Two)
11
Ghana’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part One)
12
Remembering Mexico Beach
13
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Joined The Peace Corps (Morocco)
14
Letters from Nurses in the Peace Corps archived at American University
15
Peru’s First Peace Corps Staff (Final)

William Josephson, First Peace Corps Lawyer

In September, 1958, Bill Josephson went to England to write a doctoral dissertation in history at St. Antony’s College, one of the two graduate colleges at Oxford University. He set himself what he still describes as “a fascinating thesis problem: what were the other Americans, other than President Wilson and Colonel House, doing at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919? “The American delegation included numbers of people who were to become first magnitude figures—Lippmann, Grew, Bullitt, Frankfurter, Dulles, Baruch”—but exactly what they were doing from day to day has by and large remained a mystery.” Fascinating or not, the thesis was never completed because the young lawyer met Diana Hayward Bailey, a London girl whom he proceeded to court and marry. On the other side of the world, one Earl Reynolds had just stated an anti-bomb demonstration by sailing his yacht, Phoenix, into the Pacific testing area. Just before leaving . . .

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Philippines’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part One)

On its second birthday, March 1, 1963, the Peace Corps counted 624 Volunteers at work in the Philippines. Except for 22 men assigned to a rural community action program in the large southern island of Mindanao, the so-called “Texas of the Philippines,” all the Volunteers, men and women, were employed as teachers—some at the university and secondary levels but most of them in elementary schools. This meant that the Philippines was the setting for the largest single overseas educational program that the United States had ever mounted. It was also by a considerable margin the largest program in the Peace Corps—and would continue to be so for 10 more months. As the Peace Corps planned the program in conformance with requests from the Philippines government—the republic served as host to 650 Volunteers by the autumn of 1963, some of whom were assigned for the first time to the lushly tropical . . .

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EVERYWHERE STORIES: VOLUME III edited by Clifford Garstang (South Korea)

  Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, Volume III Edited by Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976-77) Press 53 Publisher October 2018 196 pages $19.95 (paperback)   The third anthology in the series travels to 20 more countries Press 53 announces the publication on October 16, 2018, of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, Volume III, an anthology of 20 stories by 20 authors set in 20 countries. With a theme of “It’s an Adventurous World,” this exciting addition to the Everywhere Stories series, edited by award-winning author Clifford Garstang, takes readers on a journey around the globe: to a mysterious discovery in Mongolia, to an expedition in the Australian Outback, to revolution in Chile, and to more stories in countries on every continent. Contributors include Ben Berman [Zimbabwe 1998–2000] (Strange Borderlands, Figuring in the Figure), J. Thomas Brown (The Land of Three Houses), E. Shaskan Bumas . . .

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Charlie Peters, First Director of Peace Corps Evaluation

By a common rule of politics, freshmen legislators are expected to keep their mouths closed and their ears open. Carlie Peters managed to shatter the rule without rousing so much as a dirty look. The fact that he may have set a record for first-term accomplishment in the West Virginia House of Delegates is, he admits, due to at least one unusual circumstance. “I had already served two years as clerk of the House Judiciary Committee,” Peter explains. “So I knew the other Delegates—and they knew me—before I was elected. Afterward, I was in quite a different position than if I had been a perfect stranger. I was a familiar figure in the Capitol and no one thought I was trying to be a whiz kid by pushing legislation.” In this situation, Peters went ahead—and rolled up a remarkable score. He drafted and sponsored the state’s first civil service law. . . .

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Richard Wiley (Korea) publishes TACOMA STORIES

Richard Wiley (Korea 1967–69) has a  new collection of stories from and about his hometown, Tacoma, Washington. As Richard writes, My first job was as a bicycle repairman when I was fourteen years old. I was fired pretty quickly for not being able to repair bicycles. I was a bartender at the Old St. Louis Tavern when I was twenty. After that, I worked at Pat’s Tavern, site of the first of my Tacoma Stories, from which all of the following stories stream. In the first story, Becky Welles, daughter of the famous thespian, Orson, says the following: “Do you think a town can act as a hedge against the unabated loneliness of the human heart…? The entire idea for this collection came out of one night’s drinking at Pat’s Tavern back in 1968 (it was really 1967, but I changed the date). Originally, I peopled this story with folks I had . . .

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“An Example for Government” (Part Two)

It was apparent from the beginning that we would need talented people in the Maiatico Building, (the first Peace Corps HQ, across from Lafayette Square and the White House) who had wide experience in government work. The question was—how would we find them? We followed the principle that one good man would bring another. So Warren Wiggins got us Jack Young from NASA, a demon of energy and creativity who organized our management services. Jack Young got us Bill Kelly, who was the man at NASA in charge of efficiently moving such things as Saturn boosters from Huntsville, Alabama to Cape Canaveral. We decided he would be just the man to solve the problems of how best to transport Peace Corps Volunteers from the United States to the ends of the earth. Bill came to us on 3 days’ notice and he has performed one of the most outstanding jobs in . . .

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Kennedy signed Peace Corps Act — Up for Auction!

  Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from William Evensen (Peru 1964-66) Current Auction Is Open For Bidding Our Current Auction Closes Nov 07         #59 – John F. Kennedy Signed Peace Corps Act Page Estimate: $10,000+ Page of the Peace Corps Act signed by President Kennedy Partial DS as president, signed “John F. Kennedy,” one page, 10 x 14, September 22, 1961. The seventh page of an early official printing of H. R. 7500, ‘An Act to provide for a Peace Corps to help the peoples of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for skilled manpower,’ otherwise known as the ‘Peace Corps Act,’ boldly signed in the lower margin by President Kennedy. This section of the document outlines the general powers and authorities granted to the president under the act, and it appears to be from a printer’s proof of the act: an erroneous quotation mark . . .

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“An Example for Government” from Who’s Who in The Peace Corps

Sargent Shriver Writes (Letter edited for length) I hope this booklet—Who’s Who in The Peace Corps—will give Peace Corps Volunteers in the field a little information about the quality and the background of the members of the Washington staff. Nothing that I could say about the dedication and ability of these men and women could improve upon the assessment of them made by President Kennedy last June 14 when he said that they “have brought to government service a sense of morale and a sense of enthusiasm and, really, commitment, which has been absent from too many governmental agencies for too many years.” He went on to say that he believes that the members of the Peace Corps/Washington staff “have set an example for government service which I hope will be infectious”. Vital as these people are, however, not one of them is more important to the Peace Corps than . . .

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Who’s Who in The Peace Corps Washington

The Peace Corps Washington Staff Simple addition would reveal that the Peace Corps administrators in Washington during its first years had lived abroad for a total of about four centuries. They had visited or stayed at length in every nation on earth. The cumulative lifetime travel mileage of the Washington staff added up to thirty or more round trips to the moon. One staff member all by himself use to log 150,000 miles a year as part of a former job. Such statistics are only mentioned because they indicate a familiarity with the broad world, an acquaintance with the far corners of the earth that were necessary in an agency that focused beyond the near horizon. The Peace Corps staff in Washington, D.C. came from every possible background, from all economic levels, and from every part of the country. They included skiers, mountains climbers, big-game hunters, prizefighters, football players, polo . . .

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Ghana’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part Two)

On October 16, 1961, Raymond C. Parrott joined the Ghana Staff as Deputy Representative. From New Hampshire, he graduated from high school in 1947 and enlisted in the Navy for three years. Taking a completive military examination, he made the highest mark of anyone from New Hampshire and was admitted to West Point. There, he was told he had a bad shoulder and would have to have an operation or get out. He got out and went to Trinity College and graduated in 1953 with a degree in economics. He received another scholarship and went to Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where he received his master’s degree in 1954. He then went to work for Arthur D. Little. He first heard of the Peace Corps through his work on the International Economic Affairs Committee of the National Association of Manufactures. He came to Washington, where Shriver offered him the . . .

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Ghana’s First Peace Corps Staff (Part One)

During the first week of May, 1961, Richard Thornell landed in Ghana to lay the groundwork for the arrival of the first Volunteers to be sent overseas. He was stricken with TB the end of August and entered the hospital only five days before the Volunteers stepped off the pane in Accra on August 29, 1961. A number of dignitaries, however, including Ghana’s Minister of Education A.J. Dowuong-Hammond, were on hand to greet the 50 PCVs, men and women, and their escort officer, Padraic Kennedy, at the big airport on the outskirts of Accra. In response to expressions of welcome, one of the Volunteers stepped forward and delivered a thank-you for the group in Twi, the principal local language. The Twi was far from perfect, but the fact that Americans would try to speak it at all was met with smiling enthusiasm on the part of the welcoming Ghanaians.   . . .

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Remembering Mexico Beach

  Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962-64) first happened upon Mexico Beach in 1975 on her way to interview at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. She had just finished her doctorate at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In 1977, she moved to Pensacola in “Florida’s Great Northwest,” where she taught at the University of West Florida until retirement. During her family’s time in Florida’s western Panhandle, there were many family reunions on St. George Island, a gorgeous sweep of barrier island off of Apalachicola, not far from Mexico Beach. Patricia remembers . . . •   Mexico Beach Hurricane Michael flattened Mexico Beach in Florida’s eastern Panhandle on October 10, 2018. Was it a fluke in the temperature of the Gulf? A nudge from a high pressure system from the north? God’s unleashed breath, punishment for a covey of sinners living in recreational vehicles back from the beach? Until the . . .

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10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Joined The Peace Corps (Morocco)

  Jesse Altman is finishing his tour in Morocco this December and has maintained a blog during  his Peace Corps years.  This is a recent item on Jesse’s blog, reposted with his permission. — JCoyne • 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Joined Peace Corps Close of Service Conference and my Last 4 Months in Morocco by Jesse Altman (Morocco 2016-18)     After closing out my summer work and the month of July, I headed off to Rabat for our Close-of-Service Conference! It is crazy and unbelievable that 23 months have gone by and less than 4 remain for my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. The conference was a lot of fun, but bittersweet as well. This was the last time that our entire staj (cohort) will be together since we all have different departure dates starting in a few months’ time. Having said . . .

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Letters from Nurses in the Peace Corps archived at American University

  American University has graciously accepted a copy of “Letters from Nurses in the Peace Corps”  to be archived in its Digitial Archive as well as a hard copy in its Peace Corps Community Archive.  We are so gratful that this document will be preserved. Letters from Nurses in the Peace Corps is a document containing letters from twelve nurses who served in the Peace Corps from approximately 1962 to 1967.  It was published by the Peace Corps as a recruiting brochure in 1967. Read excerpts from the letters here: Letters From Nurses in the Peace Corps – 1967 In acceping the copy, American University Librarian Nancy Davenport wrote: “This brochure will offer a unique glimpse into the work of Peace Corps volunteers during this period and will be of interest to both our campus community and external researchers.” Click to see the Peace Corps Community Archives at American University

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Peru’s First Peace Corps Staff (Final)

Emory Biro was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and went to the University of Detroit, where he edited the college paper, and graduated in 1954 with a degree in political science. He was fired from his job as a college editor because of his last editorial, an attack on McCarthyism called “The Rise of Fascism in the U.S.” Also in his undergraduate career, he had served as vice president of the university’s student council, vice president of the Detroit Interracial Council, and finally, vice president of the Migratory Workers Defense League. In 1954, he moved to Chicago and went to work for the Catholic Interracial Council, of which Sargent Shriver was then president. Appointed to the CIC board, he served on it from 1957 until he came to the Peace Corps in 1962. Biro, who spoke Hungarian before he spoke English, and who first learned Spanish working with braceros . . .

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