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The Peace Corps On Day One: Women And The Mad Men At HQ
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New books by Peace Corps writers | November — December 2023
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Review | THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE by Clifford Garstang (Korea)
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Escape to Alaska by Steve Kaffen (Russia)
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Review | William Hershey’s TAKING THE PLUNGE INTO ETHIOPIA
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Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (Panama) disqualifies Trump
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The Death of RPCV Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana)
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Review | JUST KEEP PEDALING by Connie Ness (Uruguay)
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Bob Gale (DC staff) & “In, Up and Out”
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12 Reasons to Date A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
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RPCV Lawrence Grobel (Ghana)
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Women Were (For the Most Part) Not Part of the “Mad Men” in the Early Peace Corps
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Travel Writer Alexa West (Bulgaria)
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Mad Men’s First Director of Recruitment, Bob Gale
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Joel Rubin (Costa Rico) running for Congress from Maryland

The Peace Corps On Day One: Women And The Mad Men At HQ

Arriving for work on or before March 1, 1961, the day President Kennedy signed the executive order establishing the Peace Corps, were a few women who were early “volunteer staffers” and who would become famous in those first years of the agency. The majority of these women were well connected by family or friends to Shriver and eager to work at the Peace Corps, the shining star of Kennedy’s administration. The Peace Corps was the ‘hot’ agency and everyone, of course, wanted to be connected to Kennedy–if they couldn’t be in the White House–they wanted to be with Shriver and the Peace Corps. The women at the time were mostly ‘second class’ citizens in the world-of-work. They were not, for example, sitting at the ‘big conference table” at Senior Staff meetings. Looking at old black-and-photos of Peace Corps HQ meetings, you might see that Elizabeth (Betty) Forsling Harris had wedged herself into . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | November — December 2023

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third . . .

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Review | THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE by Clifford Garstang (Korea)

  The Last Bird of Paradise by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) Black Rose Writing 340 pages $6.99 (Kindle) $23.95 (paperback) This novel is forthcoming in February 2024 Reviewed by Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80)   Reading the Author’s Note following this remarkable novel, I was struck by several ways Clifford Garstang’s experience has resembled mine. He first visited Singapore, the setting of the novel, in 1978, “as a young backpacker, touring Asia after spending two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea.” I also traveled to Singapore in 1978–from Thailand, between Peace Corps teaching assignments. I too was fascinated by the emerging city-state, an oasis of calm and order compared to bustling, chaotic Bangkok or Jakarta. Six years later, he returned to Singapore, first as an associate and later as a partner of a U.S. law firm. Some years prior to Peace Corps, while working with Legal Aid attorneys . . .

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Escape to Alaska by Steve Kaffen (Russia)

Escape to Alaska by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) December 2023 $0.00 (Kindle) Kindle Unlimited; $4.99 (Buy within 24 hours.     Author and explorer Steve Kaffen had to escape Washington, D.C.’s stifling summer heat and energy-sapping humidity, but where? Having just returned from Iceland, his natural conclusion: an escape to Alaska. The decision made perfect sense. Alaska is a haven of awesome natural beauty, spectacular scenery, great and meandering waterways, prolific animal and sea life, and fascinating indigenous cultures. It’s a land of superlatives: America’s largest state (by far) has the longest coastline, the tallest mountain, and the largest national park and national forest. Its thousands of glaciers include those in sprawling Glacier Bay, the enormous Hubbard Glacier, and majestic Mendenhall Glacier, an easy drive from the state’s low-key capital Juneau. Finally, Alaska is descriptive of a state of mind that embodies resourcefulness and self-reliance, confronting and surmounting challenges, an adventurous . . .

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Review | William Hershey’s TAKING THE PLUNGE INTO ETHIOPIA

  Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia by William Hershey (Ethiopia 1968-70) The University of Akron Press 134 pages 2023 $24.95 (paperback); $18.99 (Kindle)   Reviewed by Cynthia Nelson Mosca (Ethiopia 1967-69) • For those of us who are old enough to have served in the Peace Corps in the ’60s and ’70s those years conjure up vivid images of the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, the targeting of groups like the Black Panthers by the FBI, and of course the hippie movement, rock and roll, flower children and protest songs performed by Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Buffy St. Marie. Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia is a sobering look at the second largest country in Africa as well as our own past and present turbulence. Bill was part of a team of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists at the Akron Beacon Journal. . . .

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Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (Panama) disqualifies Trump

In the news —   On Thursday, December 28, Maine Secretary of State RPCV Shenna Bellows  disqualified former President Trump from the 2024 ballot. Bellows cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, which prevents a person who has engaged in any rebellious activity against the country from holding office. “The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote. Bellows’ decision to block Trump from the 2024 ballot comes a week after the Colorado Supreme Court barred the former president from the state’s Republican primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment, seemingly referencing Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress. Bellows’ move against Trump has sparked disbelief online. Social media users accused the Maine Secretary of State of hindering the democratic process and began circulating her picture with . . .

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The Death of RPCV Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana)

  Arnold Stanley Zeitlin passed away peacefully in his sleep on December 26, 2023 in Fairfax, Virginia. Born on January 13, 1932, Arnold was nearly 92 years old. He was blessed throughout his life with the love and support of his many family members and broad network of friends and colleagues. Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana 1961– 63) was a correspondent for more than 30 years, and bureau chief of  The Associated Press, assigned to West Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Philippines. For UPI, he served as vice president and managing director of the Asia-Pacific division, based in Hong Kong. From 1998 to 2001, he served as director of the Asian Center of The Freedom Forum, a nonprofit foundation devoted to news media issues. In 2001, he founded Editorial Research and Reporting Associates, Inc., which consults news media and journalism educators primarily in Asia in support of the First Amendment to . . .

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Review | JUST KEEP PEDALING by Connie Ness (Uruguay)

Reviewed by Chuck Haga columnist for the Grand Forks Herald Grand Forks, ND • Connie Ness (Uruguay 1994-96) and I may have talked about the Peace Corps when we worked together on the Dakota Student, the UND student newspaper, in the late 1960s. Maybe, maybe not. Memory fails. But those were heady, hopeful times, despite the war, the assassinations and the riots. The idea of the Peace Corps intrigued us, and we were young. We were among Dakota Student staffers who drove to Washington, D.C., to participate in a national student convention. One day, I spotted Sen. Eugene McCarthy, the anti-Vietnam War presidential candidate from Minnesota, alone in the hotel lobby. I walked up to him and proudly showed my blue and white “McCarthy for President” button. A moment later, Connie joined us, and Gene turned his attention to her. She was always fond of reminding me that the senator . . .

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Bob Gale (DC staff) & “In, Up and Out”

  Regardless of what else might be said about the “Gale Method” it established two important elements for the Peace Corps. HQ staff now understood how recruitment was done, and they had acquired the skills that would make them effective recruiters. More importantly was that within the first years, the Peace Corps was established as part of campus life. Peace Corps Recruiters would be invited back every year, and would be welcomed, often with the same deference and cooperation shown in 1963. By now, and this was early in 1965, the Peace Corps was starting the “In, Up & Out” policy that Robert Textor had crafted in a memo for the agency, and Bob Gale was thinking of leaving. He didn’t want to be Director of Recruiting for Life, as Shriver had declared at the senior staff meeting in March 1963. Gale wanted to leave when the going was good. . . .

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RPCV Lawrence Grobel (Ghana)

Lawrence Grobel (Ghana 1968-71) is the author of 32 books and hundreds of magazine articles. Among his honors are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction; Special Achievement Awards from PEN for his Conversations with Capote, and Playboy for his interviews with Barbra Streisand, Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro; and the Prix Litteraire from The Syndicat Francais de la Critique de Cinema for his Al Pacino: In Conversation with Lawrence Grobel. He has been a Contributing Editor for Playboy, Movieline, World (New Zealand), and Trendy (Poland) and has been called “A legend among journalists” by Writer’s Digest, and “The Mozart of Interviewers” by Joyce Carol Oates. He served in the Peace Corps, teaching at the Ghana Institute of Journalism; created the M.F.A. in Professional Writing for Antioch University; and taught in the English and Honors Departments at UCLA. He has served as a jury member at . . .

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Women Were (For the Most Part) Not Part of the “Mad Men” in the Early Peace Corps

In the third year of the Peace Corps–1963–a booklet was published by the agency entitled “Who’s Who in the Peace Corps Washington.” Here is one photo of the early Staff Meetings with Shriver at the head of the table.       A list of the top 40 employees are profiled in this booklet. Only three profiles, however, were of women: Alice Gilbert (Director of the Division of United Nations and International Agency Programs); Ruth Olson (Special Assistant to the Chief of the Division of Volunteer Field Support); Dorothy Mead Jacobsen (Chief of the Division of Personnel). There was also a list of “Charter Members” of the agency. They have a photo and a paragraph. A total of 21 employees were profiled. Of them 7 were women: Jean Hundley, a secretary; Nan Tucker McEvoy, Deputy Director of Africa Programs; Sally Bowles, daughter of Ambassador Chester Bowles; Helen Farrall, receptionist; Gloria Gaston, African Region; Nancy Gore, . . .

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Travel Writer Alexa West (Bulgaria)

    The One-Way Ticket Plan: Find and Fund Your Purpose While Traveling the World by Alexa West (Bulgaria) New World Library September 2023 328 pages $9.99 (Kindle); $18.59 (Paperback)   In 2011, Alexa West (Bulgaria) sat on her bedroom floor, packed her life into a backpack, and got on a one-way flight with just $200 in her pocket. She turned that $200 into over ten years of full-time travel. She went from budget backpacker to solo female travel expert — and now teaches thousands of women how to travel alone and how to make money from anywhere. In her new book, The One-Way Ticket Plan, Alexa reveals her decade’s worth of lessons, regrets, embarrassments, love stories, shortcuts, and problem-solving strategies — all packed into a hilarious page-turner and actionable plan for a total life makeover. From real-world advice on how travel can lower your cost of living to guidance . . .

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Mad Men’s First Director of Recruitment, Bob Gale

BOB GALE Bob Gale was six foot two, blue eyed, and owned a big personality.  He was an academic coming to the Peace Corps from being the vice president for development at Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a Humphrey supporter. Gale had decided he wanted to go to Washington with the New Frontier and work for the Peace Corps and got in touch with Hubert Humphrey, who he knew, and a meeting was arranged with Bill Haddad (another early Mad Man) who was already working at the agency. William F. Haddad was the Associate Director for the Office of Planning and Evaluation. (At the age of 14 in post-Pearl Harbor, he had enlisted in the Army Air Corps pilot training program and advanced to cadet squadron commander before his true age was discovered.) Haddad (who went on to become a Congressman from New York State) had come to the Peace Corps from being . . .

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Joel Rubin (Costa Rico) running for Congress from Maryland

Hi, let me introduce myself.   I’m Joel Rubin. I’m running as a Democrat for Congress to represent Maryland’s 6th District, and I’m here to connect with folks and the grassroots. I began my career as a Peace Corps volunteer and have been on the frontlines, from combating climate change to advocating for women’s rights to fighting antisemitism. I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama. I served in municipal government, including as Vice Mayor of Chevy Chase, MD. I served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress.

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