The Peace Corps

Gary Lynn Garrison (Tunisia 1966-69) died  on May 4, 2024, age 79, in Sarasota, Florida, surrounded by his family. Gary’s life served world peace through international cultural understanding. Born in Pittsburgh, Kansas, on November 2, 1944, he grew up in Kansas, graduating from The Chanute High School in 1962 and from Kansas University in 1966 with BA degrees in French, History, and International Relations. Upon graduation he served three years in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, using his knowledge of French and Arabic to teach English in the secondary schools and becoming a Peace Corps trainer in Yemen. In his first marriage to fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Jeannie Dodson he had daughters Shadia and Emily. He attended the CASA program, an intensive Arabic Studies year at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and then worked briefly in Cairo for the Ford Foundation. He received an MA in comparative education from . . .

PCV Accused of Murdering His Wife in Tanzania by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) OVER THE SIXTY PLUS YEARS OF THE PEACE CORPS more than one PCV has slipped a thick blank-paged journal into their luggage, ready to record their experience while on this great new adventure. Many, of course, think that perhaps someday they’ll turn all the notes into a novel or a memoir. Paul Theroux, for example, used his journals in writing his 1989 novel, My Secret History, which is set partly in Malawi and Uganda. Mike Tidwell turned to his journals when he wrote The Ponds of Kalamabayi about his time in Zaire. And Kathleen Coskran used the journals she kept in Ethiopia for several of her stories in her prize-winning collection, The High Price of Everything. But it was the journal of another PCV, William Kinsey, which first brought Peace Corps writers into international headlines. In 1966, five years after the founding . . .

In the early days of the Peace Corps there was a Placement Test given to all applicants. Actually it was two tests. A 30-minute General Aptitude Test and a 30-minute Modern Language Aptitude Test. The areas of testing were in Verbal Aptitude, Agriculture, English, Health Sciences, Mechanical Skills, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, World History, Literature, United States History and Institutions, and Modern Language Aptitude. One-hour achievement tests in French and Spanish were also offered during the second hour. The instruction pamphlet that accompanied the tests said that the results would be used “to help find the most appropriate assignment for each applicant.” For those who missed the opportunity to take the tests, which were given — as best I can remember — from 1961 until around 1967, I am including a few of the questions. Lets see if you could still get into the Peace Corps back then. Verbal Aptitude . . .

Naming the “Peace Corps” by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) THOSE OF US WHO follow the history of the Peace Corps agency know the term “peace corps” came to public attention during the 1960 presidential election campaign. In one of JFK’s last major speeches before the November election he called for the creation of a “Peace Corps” to send volunteers to work at the grass-roots level in the developing world. However, the question remains: who said (or wrote) “peace corps” for the very first time? Was it Kennedy? Was it his famous speech writer Ted Sorensen? Or Sarge himself? Like in many situations, the famous term came about when a young kid — a writer! — working quietly away in a back office, dreamed up the language. In this case the kid was a graduate student working between degrees, for the late Senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey. I learned about the history of . . .

Edward “Ned” Gould Rowland Chalker II, a Washington, DC resident for over 50 years passed away on April 21, 2024. “Ned” was born on September 30,1938 in Chester CT, to E. Gould Chalker and Florence Christiansen who predeceased him. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Trinity College in Connecticut in 1960. In 1961, Ned joined the newly formed Peace Corps and served in the inaugural group of volunteers in Colombia known as the Columbia 1 Compadres. Ned developed life-long friendships from his tour of duty and continued to help the Colombian community he cherished for the rest of his life. He later helped to establish the Peace Corps Park and Museum in Washington, DC. Ned moved to East St. Lous in 1968 to open a Job Corps program at Westinghouse Consultants. In the early 1970s, he moved to Washington, DC to begin work at what later became the . . .

  BY LEX RIEFFEL (India 1965-67) & Xueqing Wang Scientific American     China’s population of 1.4 billion people is the largest in the world, right? Not anymore. In 2023 India surpassed China as the most populous country. China’s population began shrinking in 2022, and the latest United Nations report indicates that it could slip to 1.3 billion in 2050 and then plummet to only 770 million in 2100. As this news spreads, warnings of a looming crisis are growing louder. Perhaps most concerning of these is that China will not have enough young people to grow the economy or support older adults. But China’s declining populace could be a cause for opportunity rather than a crisis. China could arrive at a stable and sustainable population of around one billion in 2100. At this level, it is possible for the country to remain a global superpower and for its citizens to become even . . .

Meeting in Washington, D.C., Niger Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine informed Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell that all 1,000 U.S. special operations troops and other personnel must vacate the country. By Arthur I. Cyr of Carthage College   In the news — By ARTHUR I. CYR Syndicated Columnist  • • •  This is a major setback, during a time of general instability in that region. Last year, the leader of Gabon, Ali Bongo, was removed in a sudden military coup on Aug. 30. On July 26 of the government in Niger was overthrown. In August 2020, Mali experienced a military takeover. Coups have also taken place in recent years in Burkina Faso, Chad and Guinea. France is most tied to these nations culturally and economically, but the entire international community has stakes in this worrisome trend. Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group has been notably active in trying to establish lucrative contracts in . . .