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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-FUF-02
Freeman discusses presidential visits between the United States, Colombia, and Venezuela, ambassadorial involvement with monetary matters, and Peace Corps activities in Colombia, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-FUF-01
Freeman discusses being named Ambassador to Colombia, the episode involving the possible cancellation of Kennedy’s visit to Colombia, and working with the foreign ministers and President Lleras, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ABD-03
Duke discusses John F. and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s state visits to Paris, London, Venezuela and Colombia, and John F. Kennedy’s 1961 meeting with Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev in Vienna, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RTW-01
Woodward discusses his involvement with Latin American affairs, specifically noting situations involving the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Colombia, among other issues.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-069
Lisa Weiss served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine from 2005 to 2008 as a teacher. She later served in Peace Corps Response in Colombia in 2011. In Ukraine she underwent intensive Russian language training and technical training at a school 40 minutes outside of Kyiv. After three months of training, her site placement was in Feodosia, a small city located on the coast of the Black Sea in Crimea. She volunteered in a secondary school and taught content-based instruction in history and literature of English-speaking countries. She joined Peace Corps Response in 2011, and was part of the second group sent to Colombia after a 30-year absence from the country. She co-taught in Barranquilla at a school for the gifted and led professional development. At the close of the interview she cites that the Peace Corps made her more resilient and understanding of other cultures. Interviewed and recorded by Elaine Staab, December 7, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-061
Kevin Dixon served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1962 to 1964 in a physical education program (Colombia IV). He discusses being recruited by Peace Corps while in college through an athletics magazine, and training at Texas Western University and at the Outward Bound facilities in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. He was assigned to set up a physical education program at the University of Antioquia in Medellin at the request of an American faculty member who wanted him to play baseball on an American ex-pat baseball team. Through this team, he got to know American consular staff and other ex-pats. In the second year, he traveled throughout the country setting up teams in conjunction with Colombian baseball and basketball leagues. He met his wife Kay, a fellow volunteer, in Colombia, and two of his daughters also served in the Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 4, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-060
Katherine (Kay) Gillies Dixon served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1962 to 1964 in an urban community action program (Colombia III). She discusses language and cultural training at the University of New Mexico, Outward Bound training in Puerto Rico, and the eye-opening experience of working in a slum in New York City during training. Stationed in Medellin, Colombia, she distributed CARE provided food out of a health center in the Antioquia barrio, a large red-light district. She also trained people in use of powdered milk in rural areas and helped form clubs for neighborhood university students. Dixon discusses interactions with the U.S. foreign service community and visiting members of Congress. She also talks about reaction to President Kennedy's assassination and her subsequent involvement in Colombia with Partners in the Americas. She married a fellow Colombia volunteer (Kevin Dixon) and two of her daughters also served in the Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 4, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-1996-032-007
Maureen Shanley served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1977 to 1979. Shanley was stationed in Bogota and worked for the National Vocational Educational Program (Servicio National de Aprendis, or SENA). She produced video tapes, slide presentations, and instructional manuals for educational use. Interviewed and recorded by Patrick Preston, May 13, 1994, as part of a Northeastern University public history class. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file). A user's guide and transcript are available in Box 93.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2015-021
Sam Farr served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from February 1964 to February 1966 in an urban community development program. He trained at the School of Social Work, Columbia University, and was assigned to the barrio of Castilla in Medellin, Columbia. Tasked to work with the newly formed government program Accion Comunal, Sam's first project supported the barrio in the construction of a soccer field. That introduction to rudimentary but effective construction techniques and the dynamics of local culture led to more projects and eventually to his offering community development training to Colombians in the office of Accion Comunal itself. Witnessing the "culture of poverty" in Columbia, and suffering the deaths of both his mother and his sister during this period, profoundly affected Farr and left him committed to a life of service. After the Peace Corps, he was a budget staffer in the California Assembly before winning election to the Monterrey County Board of Supervisors in 1975. In 1980 he won a seat in the California State Assembly where he served until his election in 1993 to U.S. House of Representatives for the 20th District of California. At the time of the interview, Farr had just been elected to his 12th term in the House. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Ann Wand, 2 December 2014. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
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-ACC-2014-032
David Wessel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1962 to 1964 in a rural community development project. He was a member of the Colombia II group. Wessel was the first PCV to hail from the State of Louisiana. He worked in the Department of Antioquia, in a mountainous area of Colombia, where his projects included organizing a cooperative of tomato growers, setting up a town library, and building schools. After completing his service, he worked for a while as a Peace Corps recruiter. Wessel has remained involved in the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and in the Colombia Support Network. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, February 4, 2014. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-065-002
William W. (Bill) Thompson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1965 to 1967 on an educational television project. Prior to joining, he worked at the WGBH television studio in Boston. Thompson was invited to join the Educational Television Program in Colombia that aimed to televise educational lessons countrywide. He attended 10 weeks of training in culture, first aid, history, and Spanish at California State College at Los Angeles. Thompson was stationed in Bogota, where he worked as a producer and director to videotape instructional television programs that would be broadcast to schools. He trained Colombians to sustain the project in the future. In addition, Thompson taught organ at the National University and played concerts. After his service, he married a fellow volunteer (Bernadette Spanuello) and continued to work in television broadcasting. Interviewed and recorded by Wendy McLaughlin, May 23, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-065-001
Bernadette (Bunny) Thompson (nee Spanuello) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1965 to 1967 on an educational television project. She heard about the Peace Corps from working as a secretary for Brother Leo Ryan in Milwaukee who was preparing prospective volunteers to serve in Brazil. As she had previously had taught school for seven years, Thompson was invited to join the Educational Television Program that aimed to incorporate televised instruction into classrooms. She was one of 42 teachers who received training at California State College at Los Angeles in language and culture, then another month of training in Puerto Rico on the school system. During her first year, Thompson lived in Ibague, the provincial capital of Tolima, and helped to develop the content and methodology for delivering educational television. She also assisted local teachers with incorporating lesson guides sent from the production studio in Bogota. During her second year, she did similar work in Bogota, in both city and rural schools. She subsequently married a fellow volunteer (William Thompson) and established a career in interior design. Interviewed and recorded by Wendy McLaughlin, July 11, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-060-001
Howard Ellegant served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1964 to 1966 on an architecture and engineering project. Ellegant had worked as an architect prior to joining. He trained at Los Angeles State College, in Puerto Rico, and in-country. Ellegant was stationed in Medellin to work with an Alliance for Progress program to develop schools in rural areas. It was a joint Colombia-U.S. program and was staffed by both Colombians and Peace Corps volunteers. Ellegant drew up architectural plans for rural school buildings, which involved traveling out to various sites. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, June 14, 2009. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-056-009
Joanne Powhida Roll served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 on a rural health development project. She trained at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque along with more than 300 volunteers training for Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, June 18, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-025-022
William (Sandy) Stevenson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 as an architect. He trained at the University of New Mexico with an emphasis on language. He assisted in organizing farmers into co-ops to better market produce. He also designed libraries and schools based on the function and need of individual towns. His goal was to let the townspeople realize that Americans are real people. Interviewed and recorded by Ernest Zaremba, August 21, 2004. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-001-004
Phil Lopes served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1961 to 1963 on a community development project. He was first assigned to Santa Cruz, Santander Del Sur, where he worked at the Rockefeller Foundation Station. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, October 15, 2001. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-088
Charles F. (Chic) Dambach served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1967 to 1969 in a community development program. Dambach talks about leading a strike when two of his fellow volunteers were about to be deselected during training. One Peace Corps trainer, Sam Farr, was fired because he opposed the deselection, and the volunteers went on strike in support of Farr and their trainee colleagues. (The strike was successful. Farr later became a U.S. Representative and a staunch supporter of the Peace Corps.) In Colombia, Dambach lived and worked in the Albornoz barrio on the outskirts of Cartagena. He discusses the work he did with the barrio's squatters to get the government to open a school to serve this community, and how he helped the villagers organize fishing cooperatives and improve their fishing practices. In addition, Dambach discusses the influence that Peace Corps service had on his career as community organizer and advocate for dialogue and non-violent solutions to conflicts. In this regard, he talks about his term as director of the National Council of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from 1992 to 1999 (now called the National Peace Corps Association), and the program he started to provide teachers with resource materials to use in promoting intercultural understanding. Dambach also created the Emergency Response Network of RPCVs and staff to work on conflict resolution and crises in the countries in which they served; this now operates as Peace Corps Response. In addition, he discusses his conflict resolution activities in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Congo as well as his role in founding the Alliance for Peace Building. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 31, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-058
Gale Gibson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1962 to 1964. He and a Colombian colleague organized community track and field teams and high school basketball teams. Gibson was stationed in Manizales, a city of 150,000 people that had a university and many cultural events. He reflects on how the Peace Corps experience positively influenced his life. It is how he met his wife, Elonia, to whom he has been married for 52 years; it also opened him up to working on low-income economic and social issues. Gibson talks about his life-long connection to Colombia through his wife, the people he has met there over the years, and finally the Friends of Colombia group of PCVs of which he is a member. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 31, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-057
Jeremiah (Jerry) Norris served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 on a cooperatives project (Colombia VI). He was stationed in La Plata. Through his initial work with the community, he ended up visiting El Congresso, a very remote village in the rain forest. He gained the confidence of the villagers by using his Peace Corps medical kit to treat simple maladies. Norris helped them develop a timber-marketing cooperative which is still functioning 50 years later. The initial success of the El Congresso cooperative led to the development of five more cooperatives in La Plata, where Norris and other volunteers contracted with the poorest family in town to do cooking for them. He is still in touch with children from that family. After his official tour of duty, Norris served as director of co-op volunteers in Colombia, and then worked at Peace Corps headquarters in the International Organizations division. To conclude the interview, Norris reflects on the high energy and somewhat chaotic environment in PC Washington at the time, and shares his belief that much of Peace Corps' success is individual rather than organizational and happenstance than design. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 24, 2016. 1 digital file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-055
Irwin Dubinsky served as part of the Colombia VI group from 1963 to 1965. He discusses his work first in Manizales with a coffee cooperative, then with a crafts cooperative in Pasto, and finally his last assignment helping other volunteers. One of his contributions was helping the cooperatives implement a book keeping system; he had gained accounting skills while working in his father’s meat company back home. Dubinsky reflects on how the Peace Corps training in Puerto Rico built up his self-confidence. He also talks about the challenges of being thrown into an poorly-defined work assignment where the volunteer has to figure out what to do. He states that this experience was useful in his life after the Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 22, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2015-037
Ivan Carroll Browning applied to Peace Corps after serving as a VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) volunteer in a youth services program in Idaho. After joining the Peace Corps, Browning was stationed in Colombia. After training in Bogota, he worked in an adult rehabilitation program in Neiva where he offered athletic activities to prisoners. He served in Colombia from February to September 1974. Thinking he could be more effective elsewhere, he accepted a new assignment in Kenya as an audiovisual specialist in the Nairobi Hospital Medical Training Center. The first months were slow but over time he became engaged with the University of Nairobi African Studies Institute where he did photography and audio recordings, helped publish a scholarly research journal, and participated in various research and medical projects. Browning was in Kenya from January 1975 to December 1976. He states that "the Peace Corps inspired me to be a life-long community volunteer." 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, August 1, 2015.
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).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-109
Cutter Uhlhorn served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from January 2017 to March 2019 as an English teacher. He grew up in a small Texas farming community near the Mexican border. After completing college and returning home, he ultimately decided to apply to the Peace Corps. He was interested in post-Soviet states, but because he had some proficiency in Spanish, he was first invited to Panama. He did not pass the medical clearance for that assignment, but re-applied later and was invited to Colombia. Uhlhorn initially taught English in Tomarrazon, but was transferred due to security concerns. His second short assignment was in Riohacha. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, June 20, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).