Dec. 29, 2024 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Passes Away at 100 Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history. Visit the Carter Family’s Official Online Condolence Book and Tribute Website.
Read MoreI first became acquainted with Patricia in 2019, when she reached out to me in my capacity as President & CEO of National Peace Corps Association, for help recruiting returned Peace Corps Volunteers to serve with the Annunciation House hospitality center in El Paso, where her nephew, Mark Seitz, is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese. I was so compelled by her plea that I journeyed to El Paso and served the refugee community there for two weeks, as did dozens of other returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Patricia also corresponded with John Coyne and Marian Beil, reviewing some books and posting her own books on Peace Corps Worldwide. She was a gifted writer, spiritualist, and kind humanitarian. She was a close friend to many people and will be greatly missed. — Glenn Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Patricia S. Taylor Edmisten lived in Pensacola since 1977 when she joined the . . .
Read MoreJohn and I never overlapped in India but our love for the country brought us together in retirement in Washington…
John William Chromy, age 82, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, has concluded a full life of service, countless friendships, and worldwide adventures. John was born in New Prague, Minnesota. He grew up on the family farm with his parents, Stanley W. Chromy Sr. and Mary R. (Horejsi) Chromy, and his eight siblings. He attended St. Wenceslaus Catholic School and graduated from New Prague High School in 1960. He attended St. John’s University but left in 1963, answering President Kennedy’s challenge for young Americans to serve in the newly formed Peace Corps. After two years of service in India as a Peace Corps volunteer (1963-65), he returned to St. John’s University and finished his B.A. in History in 1964. A natural leader, John shared his early adventures with his first wife, Patricia Ward Chromy (1942-1984), and their two daughters, Maureen and Caroline, serving as Peace Corps staff in India (1967-1969) and Peace . . .
Read MoreWhen such a dynamic productive life force of positive impact leaves this world, it is not only heart-wrenching; it is…
It is with a heavy heart that the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation announces the passing of our President, Roger K. Lewis, who died on Wednesday at his home in Washington, D.C. after undergoing a medical procedure. He was 83, and is survived by his wife Ellen, their son Kevin and his wife, and four granddaughters. Roger’s dedicated leadership and steadfast commitment to Peace Corps Park has been critical in building the coalition that brought us from the initial concept through a competitive design competition and numerous rounds of design reviews to an elegant result that is scheduled for final approval this month. His legacy will live on in our hearts, and in every part of this project that he championed with such vigor and skill. A celebrated author, architect and journalist, Roger’s history with the Peace Corps and volunteer service dates from his time in Tunisia, where from 1964-66 he . . .
Read MoreObituary — Celebrated author and playwright RPCV Shay Youngblood (Dominica 1981-83) died of ovarian cancer on June 11 in Peachtree City, Ga. She was 64. Born Sharon Ellen Youngblood in Columbus, Ga., in 1959, Youngblood penned novels, poetry, children’s books, and plays, creating powerful Southern Black women characters who were unapologetically self-possessed and free in ways not typically seen in women characters in general, and Black women in particular, in the U.S. Following the death of her mother when she was 2 years old, Youngblood was raised by her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother. Youngblood credited her upbringing by her grandmothers and their tight-knit circle of friends for shaping and molding her worldview on relationships, society, power, and identity; they and a group of their friends influenced the characters she wrote. Shay also mirrored the close-knit community she grew up in by becoming part of a circle of Black women . . .
Read MoreI met Tom Spanbauer a couple of years after moving to Portland, Oregon in the late 1990s. I didn't learn…
Obituary — Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71) author of The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon [1991] and I Loved you More, died September 21, in Portland, following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Spanbauer was born in Pocatello, Idaho, in 1946. After waiting tables while earning his MFA from Columbia University in 1988, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, then lived across the United States before moving to Portland in 1991, shortly after publication of his cult classic The Man Who Fell in Love With The Moon. His other novels include Faraway Places, In the City of Shy Hunters, I Loved You More, and Now Is the Hour. His books explore issues of race, sexual identity, and making a family of choice. In Portland, he founded the “Dangerous Writing” workshop from his home. The workshop, which spanned three decades, left a line of enthusiastic students. “It is a terrifying thing to . . .
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I think I remember his country-wide evaluation of the impact of the Peace Corps on Ethiopian students. As I approached…
Obituary — Gary Bergthold was born in 1938 in Bakersfield and was proud of it. Although his life and work took him all over the world, he never forgot his roots and the humor and food brought to America by generations of his immigrant family. The oldest son of Glenn and Viola Bergthold, Gary spent his early years in Bakersfield, before leaving to attend UCLA where he received a BA and MA in Psychology. His brothers always marveled at his ability to absorb books through osmosis as they lay on his chest while he napped. At UCLA, he met his wife Linda Carlson, by sitting next to the pretty blonde girl in music class and asking if she could tutor him. They married in 1961 and set off on a lifetime of adventure around the world. In 1962 they joined the Peace Corps, and spent two years teaching secondary school . . .
Read MoreSimply a remarkable life, including as a Peace Corps pioneer in the Philippines in the early 1960s. I'm touched by…
Obituary — LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner, a Presbyterian pastor and scholar who was a longtime advocate for racial and social justice, died Aug. 2 in Jacksonville, Florida. His funeral service is set for noon Eastern Time on Monday at Sardis Missionary Baptist Church in Dawson, Georgia. According to his obituary, Turner was the first Black person to enroll at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, in 1965. Turner was born in Dawson, Georgia, on Sept. 12, 1940, to Plumpton and Edna Turner. He and siblings were raised on the family farm. He grew up and married Gloria Silver, and to that union a son was born. In 2001, he married Patsy Ford and gained two bonus sons. His early education was in a one-room, two-teacher school nestled in woods adjacent to a railroad track and surrounded by large farm plantations. The daily four-mile walk to and from . . .
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"The powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced." (President Carter's inaugural address). How time's have…