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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2012-026
Patricia A. (Pat) Wand served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 on a rural community development and health education project. Her training in New Mexico involved an Outward Bound challenge. In Colombia, Wand was assigned with another female volunteer to the small town of Buesaco, near Pasto in southern Colombia along the Pan American highway. Her involvement with the local people went beyond sewing and health classes. Responding to the voiced needs of the outlying communities, Wand and her partner were also involved in building four rural schools and a bridge. In the interview, she relates how she heard about the assassination of President Kennedy, which happened only two months after she arrived in Colombia. Over twenty years later on a return visit to the town, Wand was able to see some of the lasting impact her presence had made among the people with whom she had lived and worked. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, July 17, 2012. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-010
Thomas (Tom) Stachelek served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on a rural development project. He applied as an 18-year-old directly out of high school and describes his training experiences at Arizona State University and in Puerto Rico. In Bolivia, Stachelek was stationed in the village of Tarata, outside of Cochabamba. Initially he worked with a Ministry of Agriculture extension agent, but ultimately that individual was transferred so he ended up working by himself. One project was building concrete slab latrines in his village. Stachelek also discusses how he heard about President Kennedy's assassination, and how the Peace Corps impacted the rest of his life. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 23, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-010-008
Tom Katus served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanganyika from 1961 to 1963 on a road surveyor project (Tanganyika I). Katus had an engineering degree from the South Dakota School of Mining. His group trained at Texas Western College in El Paso. They met President Kennedy at a Rose Garden ceremony in August 1961, then helped set up the Peace Corps Outward Bound training camp in Puerto Rico. The group also had in-country training with an emphasis on learning Swahili. Katus worked under a British regional engineer based in Morogoro. He and fellow volunteer Jerry Parsons did field survey work, such as basic road mapping and market surveys, as part of a feeder road development program. After his tour, Katus founded Volunteer Training Specialists, Inc., which provided training to 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers destined for Africa. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 15, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-007
Robert Mowbray served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1963 to 1996 in an agriculture and forestry program. He also served as Associate Peace Corps Director for Agriculture and the Environment in Paraguay from 1973 to 1978. Prior to the Peace Corps, Mowbray had been stationed in Okinawa, Japan, in the U.S. Marine Corps and then completed a master's degree in forestry at Yale University. His group was the first to train in Mexico at the UNESCO Patzcuaro facility, but did not receive much technical training. He discusses the "de-selection" of volunteers in his group. In Ecuador, he was located in Ibarra and Otavalo and first worked as part of the Heifer program in conjunction with the Forestry Service, assisting with reforestation, the development of farmer forestry cooperatives, and research. During his second year, Mowbray and other volunteer foresters assisted the Forestry Service in developing a request for more volunteers for the program. In his third year, he moved to Quito and served as liaison between the Peace Corps and the Forestry Service. Following his service term, Mowbray trained new forestry volunteers going to Ecuador at Montana State College. Later, in Paraguay, he worked with the Basico training company to develop more specifically defined jobs and more technical training for volunteers. He also worked on a Peace Corps project with the Smithsonian Institution and expanded the program from 30 to 100 volunteers. He discusses whether volunteers who are expected to "find their own way" or those with clearly defined jobs are more useful to the host country. He concludes the interview by recalling the reactions of volunteers and Ecuadorians to President Kennedy's assassination. After the Peace Corps, Mowbray spent his career in USAID agriculture and forestry projects in South and Central America. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 28, 2018. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-006
Judith Madden-Sturges served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Urcos and Cusco, Peru, from 1963 to 1965 in a community development program. As a student at the University of Michigan, she attended the presidential campaign speech in which John F. Kennedy announced his plans to create what would later become the Peace Corps program. She discusses the research she did for working papers that were used at the Shriver Summit, which she attended, where many aspects of the Peace Corps program were debated. She mentions Sargent Shriver's interest in involving women in the Peace Corps. She also discusses her connection with the Kennedy family through her disabled sister, who attended the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial School, and how experience with her sister's nonverbal communication helped to prepare her for communication with Peruvians when she lacked adequate language capacity. Madden-Sturges also served as an interpreter for Robert Kennedy when he visited Peru in 1965. Finally, she talks about the problem of imposing an American view of development on other peoples and the negative impact of the Peace Corps' de-selection process. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 25, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-033
Joyce Mary Moses (then Muellner) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines from 1962 to 1964 as a teacher. She learned about the Peace Corps while doing a research assignment for school. Her training began at San Jose State College and included instruction in the Tagalog language and rigorous physical activities like survival swimming lessons. Moses then traveled to her service site in Cotabato province, the barangay (village) of Salunayan. There she taught English and science to young students and ran an adult education program that trained local teachers. In the interview, Moses shares stories about using a boat to travel between the islands, the dogs who ate her Thanksgiving turkeys, and how she heard about President Kennedy's assassination. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine V. Loriston, October 7, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-112
Terry Adcock served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from June 1961 to July 1963 in community development. Prior to joining Peace Corps, Adcock was politically active and a strong supporter of John F. Kennedy. When the Peace Corps was announced, he immediately decided to join. His group, Colombia I, was the first to undergo Peace Corps training, which was conducted at Rutgers University. It included language, community development, history, and physical fitness. Prior to departing, Adcock's group was invited to the White House to meet President Kennedy. Upon arrival in Colombia the group was housed at an experimental agriculture station in Tibaitata where additional training was provided. On weekends the trainees lived with local families. Adcock was assigned to the town of Cogua, along with another volunteer and a local counterpart. They shared living quarters and worked as a team. The interview includes a discussion of Adcock's experience working with the local community, traveling in-country, and meeting visiting VIPs from the U.S., including JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, June 22, 2019. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).