Miscellany

Rachel Bachman in the WSJ published this article today. The Peace Corps’ Press Office provided the data. It was Mark Gearan, when he was the agency’s director, who began to provide colleges and news organizations this information, which has proven to be a valuable way of keeping the agency’s name in the news. Great idea, Mark! Here is how Ms. Bachman used the information. Thanks to Mike McCaskey (Ethiopia 1965-67) for bringing the article to my attention. • Five-Star Recruits vs. Five-Star Humanitarians By Rachel Bachman: The Journal compared just-released rankings of universities by number of Peace Corps volunteers and Scout.com’s rankings of the nation’s top football recruiting classes as of early Wednesday evening, signing day. The resulting list shows that Alabama doesn’t dominate everything. Florida and Washington tied for the No. 1 spot with 107 former undergraduates serving in the Peace Corps. The Gators and Huskies also cleaned up . . .

Laurence Leamer posted this touching piece on Huffingtonpost.com yesterday. Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) was thoughtful enough to forward it to me so that I might share it with the whole Peace Corps community. • Catherine “Kitty” Houghton and The Preciousness of Life By Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1964-66) There is no greater gift than to know the preciousness of life. Once you realize it, every moment is enhanced and however long you live, you have a far longer life. Of all the people I have known, the person who grasped that essential fact the youngest and perhaps the most fully was Catherine “Kitty” Houghton. Kitty was an ebullient presence who danced through life as if in a dream, helping those who needed help and admiring the abilities and achievements of those who fell far short of her attainments, always with her sparkling, inquisitive eyes finding in life nothing but endless far . . .

This comes to us again through the kindness of Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on this site and is an expert on the history of the Peace Corps. This audio is 30 minutes long. The Peace Corps is mentioned in the first five minutes.    http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/TNC-5.aspx#.UQwOozmfFJw.email According to Joanne, President Kennedy announces the Peace Corps as a pilot program at the beginning of his Press Conference, on March 1st, 1961.  “The entire Press Conference is thirty minutes long,” says Joanne, ” and it is well worth listening to the entire Conference.  Many of the topics sound contemporary for today, such as finding alternatives to military resolution of international problems and how to control the deficit.  Kennedy’s moral positions shine throughout all of his remarks. This very special press conference illustrates the political and ethical environment in which the Peace Corps was born.” This was only the 5th Press Conference for JFK. Again, thanks, . . .

Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on our site, and who knows more than all of us about the agency, sent me the following note and interesting links at the JFK’s library in Boston. Joanne writes: “The JFK Presidential Library works hard to protect the history and legacy of the Kennedy administration. The Peace Corps is an important part of that history.  Here is an example of how important preserving and protecting that history can be. “Since the beginning, Peace Corps Volunteers have long fought the myth that somehow Volunteers were intelligence agents in disguise. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Sargent Shriver on April 2, 1963 documents that Kennedy and Shriver were strongly determined to protect the Peace Corps from the CIA. “This telephone conversation was recorded in the White House and the JFK Library has now digitized the recording and is making them available on its website. . . .

In accepting the presidential nomination, John Kennedy promised “invention, innovation, imagination, decision.” Thirty-nine days after taking office, he established the Peace Corps by executive order and began to keep that promise. The Peace Corps began for me when a call came from Millie Jeffrey, a Democratic National Committee member and active colleague in the Kennedy campaign’s Civil Rights Section (where I was deputy to Sargent Shriver). With great excitement, she told me about Kennedy’s extemporaneous talk she had heard at 2 a.m., October 14, 1960 to thousands of students, faculty, and town people waiting for him in front of the University of Michigan’s Student Union. Challenging the students, he had asked them if they were ready to spend years serving in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Stirred by his question, Michigan students, including Millie’s daughter, had taken around a petition saying yes, they were ready – nearly one thousand had . . .

At DC’s Kennedy Center for the performing arts yesterday, February 3, 2013, fittingly enough in the 50th-year Anniversary of the death of President Kennedy, eight choirs from around the country joined together to perform “A Musical Remembrance of the Life and Service of John F. Kennedy.”  The program involved an above-stage jumbotron showing film footage capturing highlights of JFK’s life even as the choirs and a full orchestra presented the world premier of “Let the Word Go Forth.”  Almost 350 choristers sung lyrics borrowing words from the “Ask now what your country can do for you . . .” speech and verbatim excerpts of other addresses by JFK.   The program closed with a stirring rendition of “America the Beautiful.”  One can only imagine how moving that anthem sounded then, as lifted up on the soaring voices of hundreds of mostly young choristers in the red and gold Concert Hall.  I . . .

There were three PCVs who began their Peace Corps experience as employees of the agency in Washington, D.C., in early 1961 working at the original HQ the Maiatico Building across the street from Lafayette Square Park, and within sight of the White House. Two of them were Alan and Judith Guskin (Thailand 1961-64) who had on the night of October 14, 1960, created the ground surge for the Peace Corps on college campuses, first in Michigan, and then across the Mid West and the rest of America. Later they would go to Thailand as PCVs. The other person was Blair Butterworth. I am not sure how Blair arrived at the Peace Corps, or why, but he did arrive, a recent graduate of Princeton, and moved into Georgetown with another buddy, and started working as staff for the Peace Corps before going to Ghana as a PCV. Last year, at the . . .

[This is, as you see, a very early talk by Shriver about the Peace Corps. It was given in the first month of the agency. Indeed it was given in the first days, 23 days after the signing of the Executive Order creating the agency. I want to thank Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) for bringing it to my attention and sending me a copy. It is interesting to read the early expectations Sarge had about the Peace Corps, and what he hoped all of us would achieve overseas. Did we fulfill his dreams? Has the Peace Corps lived up to his lofty goals all these 50+ years later.] THE PEACE CORPS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF Speech by Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. Director, The Peace Corps New York Herald Tribune Youth Forum March 24, 1961 I was invited here to speak for the Peace Corps, but in a sense, no one can . . .

As we near March 1, 2013, and another anniversary of an agency that appears to be ‘disappearing’ from the view of most Americans, if not Congress and the White House. How often do we hear, “Is there still a Peace Corps?” from the men and women on the street. It seems that for the public the Peace Corps failed away with the “Kennedy Generation.” But what brought about the Peace Corps in the first place? I thought I might try and chart the impulses in America that brought about its creation. These ‘impulses’ we might say are close to being lost in the fog of history. There were, however, several generally accepted desires that coalesced in the last days of the Fifties, framed by a number of people in speeches and in prose, and with the election of John F. Kennedy, became a reality as a federal agency. Most of the . . .

[Over the next month or so–as we reach the anniversary of the Peace Corps–I thought I might relate some tales of how the Peace Corps was established. Let’s begin with Kennedy and his involvement in the agency that he would create, and what many people think was his greatest achievement, and which all of you were part of making a reality.] Kennedy Learns about the Peace Corps JFK’s first direct association with the Peace Corps came on February 21, 1960. He was on a college television show called “College News Conference” and someone asked about the “Point Four Youth Corps.” Kennedy said he didn’t know what the legislative proposal was. Afterwards, he told aide Richard Goodwin to research the idea. Goodwin, who was the Kennedy link with the “brain trust” at Harvard, wrote to Archibald Cox at the university’s law school about the idea. Then in April and May of . . .

Carol Gelhaus of Five Point, South Caroline  is # 999 You can be #1000! [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. 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, writing today from Tokyo where he is visiting his son, the FSO at our Embassy in Japan.] Several Senators and House Representatives have finally brought Hillary Clinton before them to regurgitate their pre-election criticism of the Administration’s initial description of the Benghazi killings that left four Americans dead. The winds of punditry swirl with conjectures regarding the reasons Clinton’s harshest critics are attempting to besmirch her coming departure as Secretary of State.  Some commentators suggest that a few of her critics were launching preemptive strikes aimed at weakening . . .

Tom Friedman’s column this morning in The New York Times  is entitled “Revolution Hits the Universities” and focuses on online learning but adds a new twist. He writes about MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and Coursera, which Friedman has written about before, as well as edX, the nonprofit MOOC M.I.T. and Harvard are jointly building. One paragraph in particular caught my attention. Friedman writes that today only a small percentage complete all the work in an online course, and even they still tend to be from the middle and upper classes of their societies, but then he writes, “I am convinced that within five years these platforms will reach a much broader demographic. Imagine how this might change U.S. foreign aid. For relatively little money, the U.S. could rent space in an Egyptian village, install two dozen computers and high-speed satellite Internet access, hire a local teacher as a facilitator, . . .

[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. 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, writing today from Tokyo where he is visiting his son, the FSO at our Embassy in Japan.] Several Senators and House Representatives have finally brought Hillary Clinton before them to regurgitate their pre-election criticism of the Administration’s initial description of the Benghazi killings that left four Americans dead. The winds of punditry swirl with conjectures regarding the reasons Clinton’s harshest critics are attempting to besmirch her coming departure as Secretary of State.  Some commentators suggest that a few of her critics were launching preemptive strikes aimed at weakening a Presidential candidacy she may seek in 2016. Any mention of RPCV Ambassador Chris . . .

[Ken Hill ( Turkey 1965-67) later joined the Peace Corps staff in Washington.  In 2001 he was Chief of Staff at Peace Corps Headquarters before which he was Chief of Operations for Europe and Asia after serving as Country Director in the Russian Far East, Bulgaria and Macedonia.  He was also Chairman of the Board of the National Peace Corps Association for three years. Ken was kind enough to send me his remembrance of  Bill Whitman that I am pleased to publish for the Peace Corps Community.] Our colleague and friend, Willard “Bill” Whitman passed away on December 19 at his home in Alexandria, Virginia. Bill was 95 and suffered from heart ailments.  He is survived by Doris Clark Whitman, his wife of 67 years and his two daughters, Jean Heimer, and Doreen McGill; a sister; and five grandchildren. Many of us will remember Bill as the director of training for . . .

The Peace Corps RPCVs wasn’t allowed to march down Pennsylvania Avenue on Monday in the Inaugural Parade–even though Volunteering was the theme of Sunday’s events. However, a few Peace Corps VIPs grabbed choice seats to hear the President’s address. Photographed below, from right to left, are RPCVs Steve Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83), his wife, Carrie Hessler-Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83) Acting Director of the Peace Corps, Yue Sai Kan, who Time magazine proclaimed “Queen of the Middle Kingdom, RPCV and Vanity Fair’s Special Correspondent Maureen Orth (Colombia 1965-67), with Anne Finucane head of Bank of America Marketing and Foundation who, I understand, reserved the seats for the Peace Corps folks. They were all close enough to wave at the the President and VP as they left their cars for the Swearing In.