Close
Not finding the information you're looking for? Please contact the Archives research staff.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-007
Ken Rustad served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on an irrigation project. He went into the Peace Corps right after graduating as a political science major. He was surprised to be assigned to an agricultural group because working on farms was his only related experience. He discusses the extended training of the Bolivia II group. He worked on irrigation projects under Claude Wolfe in an agricultural community development office in Cochabamba. He describes a number of experiences he had in Bolivia. He went into the military after the Peace Corps and also worked with the Office of Economic Opportunity. Note: Interview ends abruptly. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 24, 2009. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-006
Peter Roycraft served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on an agriculture project. Prior to joining, he had graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in agriculture. His group was sent to many locations during training, including Arizona and Puerto Rico. As a visual learner, Roycraft struggled with the auditory-only Spanish language training. He arrived at the experimental agriculture station near Santa Cruz, Bolivia, expecting to work with dairy cows, but ended up doing forestry and pasture planting work instead. Roycraft has visited Bolivia five times since completing his Peace Corps service, and is a collector of Bolivian art. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 24, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-005
Larry (Butch) Oglesby served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on a rural development program (Bolivia II). He had previously graduated from a high school program in vocational agriculture. He was assigned to work with the Heifer Project based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Oglesby focused on the rural area west of Cochabamba and lived with local families. He learned that trying to change the world was harder than he thought and that the volunteers should not try to make the Bolivians be like Americans, but rather help improve their lives. He was drafted into the Army after getting out of the Peace Corps and believes that his experiences in Bolivia enabled him to adapt to anything. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 21, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-004
Peter Nieblas served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on an agriculture project. He was studying civil engineering as a senior in college when he saw a flyer about the Peace Corps and decided to apply. He requested placement in Latin America because of his Latin background and his ability to speak some Spanish. Nieblas found the training somewhat harsh and not too useful, except for portion at the Agricultural School in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. In Bolivia, he was part of an animal husbandry and dairy project intended to increase local milk production. He was based at the milk processing plant in Cochabamba, which was originally built by the United Nations, but would also travel around to assist local dairy farmers. After the Peace Corps, Peter went back to school and finished a master's degree in civil engineering. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 24, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-003
Paul S. Lofton Jr. served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 as a milk tester on an agriculture project. He was enrolled in Duke University's Divinity School when he heard about the Peace Corps. After requesting a Spanish-speaking country, he was invited to join the Heifer Project in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Working for the Planta Industriale de Lieche (PIL), Lofton helped set up a milk testing program. He also taught an English class where he inadvertently caused the Bolivians imitate his southern accent. Lofton lived with two different families and notes that everyone had health problems. He played basketball on a team organized by Claude Wolfe, the Heifer Project representative, and traveled during his vacation times to Ecuador and Brazil. Lofton states that the Peace Corps was a good learning experience but he is not sure how much the volunteers actually helped the Bolivians. However, his service did change his life goals and he went on to become a university history professor. 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-2011-002-002
James (Jim) Herberger served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 as an insect specialist. He had recently graduated with a bachelors of science in entomology. He joined alongside his wife Judy, a social worker. Herberger trained at Arizona State University in Tempe, and discusses the overall young age of the trainees and the high attrition rate. In Bolivia, he worked at an agricultural experiment station in the town of General Saavedra, outside of Santa Cruz, which felt like a frontier area. He describes how he and his friends built a raft and took a trip down various rivers to the city of Trinidad. Herberger also shares his thoughts on what the Peace Corps meant to him, other young people, and Bolivians. After returning to the U.S., he earned a PhD and became a expert in weeds and weed control, including co-writing three scientific books that led to the development of quarantine protocols for exotic species. Interview by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 23, 2009. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-001
Norman (Norm) Coble served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on an agriculture project. He had intended to study veterinary medicine but applied to the Peace Corps to take break from school. Coble was stationed in the agricultural extension offices in Santa Cruz, where he was involved in drawing blood from cows for brucellosis testing. He also taught English at the request of some local people. Coble enjoyed teaching and working with his veterinarian counterpart. The highlight of his time in Bolivia was building a raft with fellow volunteers and floating down the Yapacani and Rio Grande rivers to the city of Trinidad. After returning home from the Peace Corps, Coble taught science at the junior and senior high school levels for 36 years. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 24, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-001
Barbara Richards (formerly Rich Main) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from June 1967 to June 1969 as an English teacher. Richards attended training in Utah for the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program. She discusses her life as a TESL teacher in two different communities. Her first station was in a geographically isolated area. Richards also described the effect that the Peace Corps had on her eventual career as a Montessori teacher. Interviewed and recorded by Paul Kinsley, September 23, 2010. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2010-035-004
Charlotte (Kelso) Thompson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile from 1969 to 1971 on a housing project. She and her husband were recruited to participate in a self-help housing project for married volunteer couples. The husbands worked as architects and the wives worked as social workers in Chilean communities where government-supported self-help housing projects existed. Thompson's role as a social worker was ill-defined but she found other useful ways to be involved in her community. The project was terminated early before the end of the second year after the election of President Salvador Allende. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, August 14, 2010. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2010-034
Sara Williams served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru from 2008 to 2009 on a community health project. She applied at age 65, and had over 40 years of professional experience in the field of health care, having worked as a nurse, a public health educator, and a clinic administrator. Williams completed in-country training in Peru. She was assigned to a difficult location in a remote post that was six hours away from medical care with inadequate housing and a lack of clean water, which resulted in her being almost constantly ill. In spite of her declining physical health, Williams accomplished a considerable amount of work before terminating early for medical reasons. In her interview, she discusses how a different placement might have enabled her to better serve the Peace Corps during her time in Peru. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, August 16, 2010. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2010-027
Tennie Bickham served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia from 1967 to 1969 as a high school teacher (Liberia IX). She attended training at San Francisco State University. In Liberia, Bickham was stationed in the town of Sanniquellie at a government school where she taught math and science. She discusses the challenges of being a female high school teacher in Liberia. She also talks about her interaction with her students, the political atmosphere of the time, and the effect the Peace Corps had on her life. Interviewed and recorded by Paul Kinsley, April 6, 2010. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2010-003-004
Joyce M. Bowden served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1963 to 1966 on a health project. She initially began training as part of Bolivia V for a project in public health education, but had to leave because her father became ill. Returning to Seattle to join Bolivia VI, Bowden completed further training in Puerto Rico and then went on with one other trainee to study at a leprosarium in Louisiana. In Bolivia, she was stationed at a leprosarium in a remote area, from which she traveled to outlying villages to educate patients' families and local health workers about leprosy. Bowden also interviewed incoming patients to obtain their medical history and began a system of record keeping at the leprosarium. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, September 5, 2009. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2010-002-005
Adam Lutynski served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1966 to 1968 on a rural community development project. He and his wife Marie were part of a group of four volunteers sent to a remote village district. They formed a team that traveled to surrounding villages to make presentations about community development projects in support of work done by local rural village organizers. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 5, 2009. 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-2009-060-004
Barbara-Jean Payne Janes served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Pakistan from 1961 to 1963 as a teacher. Janes had a degree in chemistry and was part of the very first group sent to West Pakistan. She trained at Colorado State, at the Peace Corps training camp in Puerto Rico, and in-country in Peshawar. Janes was first assigned to teach science at a girl's school in Faisalabad, but after three months she transferred to the Women's College in Peshawar where she taught chemistry and biology. Since 2002, Janes has been involved in a Pakistani-based project to strengthen girls' education and has made several return visits to Pakistan in conjunction with this work. 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-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-2009-015-004
Michael Ford served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 on a rural community action project. He was in the very first group assigned to Kenya; these volunteers worked as land settlement officers in a program developed after the country's independence to transfer property from white Europeans back to native Kenyans. Ford trained at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, with agricultural training in Madison. In Kenya, he was assigned to the Shamata settlement scheme near the town of Thomsons Falls in a Kikuyu area. After four months, he was transferred to the larger Ol Kalou settlement scheme nearby. At both places, Ford provided accounting, administrative, and agricultural support. He also tried to go out and visit every farmer on the scheme in person. After the Peace Corps, Ford completed a PhD in African studies and political science. He returned to visit Ol Kalou in 1987. In the interview, Ford also discusses his experiences as a Black American in Kenya. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 6, 2008. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-015-003
Linda Meinders Webb served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1966 to 1968 on an applied nutrition project. She learned Telugu during training at Dartmouth College. Webb was part of a Peace Corps nutrition education team working in the village of Chandragiri in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Her role within the team was to work with the community to start nursery schools. At the end of her tour, she worked at the Peace Corps office in Bangalore for a month. She later also worked as a recruiter for VISTA and Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 3, 2008. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-011
Joe Zingsheim served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1965 to 1967 on a rural community development project. Although he had trained for the Dominican Republic, he was sent to Honduras instead with only one other volunteer. Zingsheim was stationed in Taulabe, and ended up working on a United Nations seed and fertilizer project with the local subsistence farmers. He also encouraged individuals to establish vegetable gardens. In the interview, Zingsheim discusses his challenges with mistrust of foreigners and serving without the support of a group of volunteers. He has been back to Honduras multiple times since completing Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Paul Kinsley, October 13, 2008. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-010
Roberta J. Vann served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from 1970 to 1971 in a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program. She had previously completed a degree in English literature at Indiana University. In Ethiopia, Vann taught English at Gondar Public Health College. In the interview she discusses how her Peace Corps service impacted her life and led her to complete a Ph.D. and pursue a career as a TEFL professor. Interviewed and recorded by Leslie Bloom, May 2, 2008. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-004-001
Judith Stadler served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1967 to 1969 on a community development project. She worked at the village level in an obstetric clinic, doing health education work. Note: Beginning of interview is missing. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 6, 2008. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-082
Charles (Chuck) Kreiman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from 1968 to 1970 as a teacher (Ethiopia X). He was part of a large group trained for secondary education, primarily English as a Second Language (ESL). After training in St. Thomas and in-country in Addis Ababa, Kreiman was assigned to a secondary school in Asella in what was then known as Arusi province. Many Peace Corps teachers had been placed at that school since 1965 in an effort to measure improvements in student performance based on the national 12th grade examination. Kreiman first taught English and later took over seven 10th grade history classes when several Ethiopian teachers were expelled as suspected instigators of student strikes. He also served on the committee to select students for positions as elementary school teachers upon completion of a one-year program at teacher training institutes. At the end of the 1969-1970 academic year, Kreiman was the only Peace Corps teacher remaining at that school. Interviewed by Gloria Curtis, June 24, 2008. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-081
Mitchell A. Seligson and his wife Susan (Sue) Berk-Seligson served as Peace Corps volunteers in Costa Rica from 1968 to 1970. They were stationed in a rural area not far from the border with Panama. Mitchell worked on cooperative and community development projects, while Susan worked on nutrition and community development projects. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Kaare-Lopez, June 6, 2008. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-080
Bruce Lang served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica from 1968 to 1971. He worked on a co-op program with local farmers that is still in existence today. He also assisted in a local land reform measure so that farmers could eventually own their own land. Interviewed by Katie Langland, June 7, 2008. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).