Mad Man # 9

Jay Rockefeller had no interest in going out on a blind date with Lennie Radley when he arrived at the University of Michigan. As he emphatically told Gale. “Bob, I’m not seeing her. I have traveled fifty thousand miles in the past five weeks. And now I am going to bed.”

You can’t, Gale insisted, begging Rockefeller, grabbing the young man by the shoulders. Gale had promised the young woman. She had lost her brother in the Peace Corps.  It was as if the whole future of the Peace Corps depended on getting Rockefeller to go on this blind date.

“Okay, Bob,” Jay answered. “I’ll do it. But only if you take out her roommate and go with me.”
“I can’t! I’m a married man!”
“I don’t care.”
“Besides, she might not have a roommate.”
“She’s got a girlfriend. If I’m going; you’re going.”

The two recruiters double dated for the sake of the future of the Peace Corps.

“We had a wonderful time,” Gale recalled later. “And Lennie and her roommate both joined the Peace Corps the following fall. Lennie’s parents relented.”

[End of # 9]

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  • Lennie joined the Peace Coprs and served in Colombia immediatly after her brother’s death (1963-1965) and Gordon, Larry’s and Lennie’s brother , served in Malawi from 1968-70. He retired as President of Lucas Films in 1993.

  • Lennie joined the Peace Corps and served in Colombia immediatly after her brother’s death (1963-1965) and Gordon, Larry’s and Lennie’s brother , served in Malawi from 1968-70. He retired as President of Lucas Films in 1993.

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