Archive - December 2018

WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen released the following statement on the passing of President George H.W. Bush.  https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/statement-peace-corps-director-jody-olsen-passing-president-george-hw-bush/ “As we pause for a National Day of Mourning today, we send our deepest condolences to the Bush family. We also express our tremendous gratitude for President Bush, for his leadership, his kindness and his lifetime of serving others. In 1985, as vice president, George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara joined then-Peace Corps Director Loret Miller Ruppe on a visit to Mali, where they met with Peace Corps volunteers working on projects in agriculture, energy conservation and rural development. Later, as president, he stated, “The United States Peace Corps built its reputation the old-fashioned way, step by step, village by village, family by family, bringing the world a bit closer one friendship at a time.” “George Bush was a steadfast friend to the Peace Corps and we will . . .

John Ross Winnie was named an Associate Director in Colombia to head the educational television project scheduled for that nation, the first such activity to be undertaken by the Peace Corps anywhere in the world. Born in Clear Lake, Iowa, Winnie was named to Phi Beta Kappa at Cornell of Iowa where he graduated in 1936 with a degree in English. In 1941, he obtained the degree Master of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa. His specialty was the theater, and he became director successively of the St. Paul Little Theater, the Belfry Summer Theater at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and the Youngstown Playhouse in Youngstown, Ohio, which included a children’s theater school. In May, 1943, he enlisted in the Navy, was sent through the Naval School of Photography in Pensacola, Florida, and spent the next two years as an aerial photographer. In June, 1950, he became an associate professor . . .

In April, 1962, Sheldon was joined by his Deputy Director, Ted Banks, who thereby became the first overseas administrator to be transferred by the Peace Corps from one country to another (in his case, from Chile to Colombia.) On July 25, 1963, Banks was named the first Peace Corps Director in Uruguay. By then, the program in Colombia had become the second largest in the world with 561 Volunteers overseas and in training, and enough additional programs had been negotiated to raise the strength of the effort in Colombia beyond that in the Philippines, which had been first. A second group of 31 rural community development workers arrived in Colombia on May 18, 1962. On November 12 of the same year, the third group – consisting of 69 urban community development workers all of whom had taken training in the slums of New York – arrived in Bogota. Just before . . .

  I met “41” when he was VP with President Reagan. We met in Conakry, Guinea in March 1984. He led the U.S. delegation attending the funeral of Guinea’s first president, Ahmed Sekou Toure. I was assigned as his personal escort for the two days he was in Conakry. A highlight of that memorable event was when all the non-Muslim heads of state were crowded into a small room located on the side of the Grand Mosque in Conakry. We expected to be allowed into the Mosque from this point. We were crammed into this room like sardines in a can. It felt like a sauna bath with Conakry’s 100 F temperature and 90% humidity, especially as we were all dressed in black suits and ties. Our ambassador got separated from us. He was hopelessly blocked by the crush of the crowd from joining us. We were instructed to take off . . .