Anne Trosper Kahn...... 2 Bob Bercaw and Jerry Hodge ...... 3 Carl Stephani & Marilyn Stephani...... 6 Charles (Chuck) Ahlgren ...... 8 Charles Looney ...... 9 David Eisenstein ...... 10 David Schiller ...... 12 Richard D. (Dick) Pallett ...... 13 Edward Cherlin ...... 17 Frank Berry Lane ...... 20 George F. Delaney ...... 23 Jim Dallas...... 26 Jim Stroud ...... 29 Jo Ann Joseph ...... 30 Julie Boden Schmidt ...... 32 Ken Nicolay ...... 35 Laurie Loken Axling...... 38 Leslie Desmond ...... 39 Linda Neal...... 42 Lynn Harmon...... 44 Lynn Meissen...... 45 Mary Trude Lindstrom...... 46 Mike Aemmer ...... 48 Peggy I Perry (Turner)...... 50 Ron Rezac ...... 54 Sandra Labes Gaines (aka Cassandra) ...... 59 Steve Moore...... 65 Suzanne Kuffler ...... 67 KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 2

Anne Trosper Kahn [email protected] | 6042 Rockrose Drive Newark, CA 94560 Cell Phone (preferred): 510-368-3398 Home Phone: 510-797-5161 Wow! A summary of the past 50 years! Well, after being summarily booted out of Korea, and after considerable lack of success finding a creative job, I stumbled into technical writing. It actually does allow a little creativity, so I have stayed in that profession, with occasional forays into the culinary arts and actual creative writing. On the professional side, I’ve worked mostly on top- secret user’s manuals for various government agencies. On the casual side, I’ve entered and won several recipe contests, and an occasional minor writing contest. In 1969, I married Lawrence Kahn (no children). Like all marriages, we’ve had our ups and downs, but I haven’t murdered him yet, mostly because of his sense of humor (no room to give examples, alas!) Together, we traveled the world and have a lot of terrific mutual memories. I retired at 62 to travel. In 2008, Lawrence decided he didn’t want to travel anymore, and after some thought, I started travelling on my own. I take about three trips a year, two short and one long, occasionally with friends, but mostly not. Most exotic destinations? Bhutan, Cambodia, the Galapagos, Macchu Picchu, panda sanctuary in China, tiger preserve in India, and too many others to list. Having rattled on at such length, I’m just going to answer question e (funny or unusual memories). The first one I would pick from Nashville is on the retreat in North Carolina, when a bunch of us grabbed blankets and camped out on a nearby hillside. Note that I didn’t say sleep on a nearby hillside. It turned out Larry Ridgeway couldn’t sleep and wandered around wrapped in a blanket, with occasional forays up a fire tower, making hilarious announcements that all started with “Attention, campers!” Came dawn and we crawled out of our blankets, wet, bleary-eyed, and unrefreshed, only to see Don Carey clad in full regalia of pajamas and robe, looking as chipper as you please. The second one from Nashville is when a group of us spent the night in Smoky Mountains National Park. On the way, we picked up a wonderfully nutritious dinner of hot dogs, buns, potato chips, marshmallows, and rum. As we were sitting around the campfire, a mommy bear approached with her two cubs. Confident in the power of our fire to deter any bear, we sat tight as the bear approached. At a certain point (I believe it was when someone yelled “Run!”), we opted to make a strategic withdrawal, while the ursine miscreant proceeded to eat all the hot dogs, all the buns, and all the potato chips. We were left with a bag of marshmallows and a bottle of rum. While it was not my most nutritious dinner, when you have enough rum, you just don’t care. The one I would pick from Korea is the time Max and I got picked up by two ROK soldiers and a soccer player, and ended up having lunch in a whorehouse in the DMZ. Wait! No, I can’t tell that one. Well, at least I kept this to one page. As the bottom margin is in sight, guess it’s time to sign off. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 3

Bob Bercaw and Jerry Hodge [email protected] 831 N. Van Buren Street Wilmington, DE 19806 Home phone: 302-778-0735 Bob’s cell: 302-530-6513 Jerry’s cell: 302-545-1580 Here goes: I left Korea (Incheon, Kyung-ju) a few month early because I had just come to the point where I was done. Yep. I had a great talk before cementing the decision to leave with one of our leaders, who I greatly respected, but whom I cannot remember. Landed in Tokyo and shared an apartment — Homma House—with Maxine, who had left Korea a bit earlier. We had some great adventures together in Tokyo, but she finally decided to return to the US. I stayed there for a bit over one year, teaching English, and eventually working as a curriculum writer and teacher trainer at TEC (Tokyo English Center). During that time, besides eating and gaining weight (made it way up to 140#!), loving the transit system (no more hopsungs!), I “accidentally” stumbled upon a gay bar—I have no intention of disclosing details about this “accident”! I became an instant member of the gei-baa society in Japan, frequenting mostly bars that did not cater to gaijin, as I wanted to meet Japanese guys, not other gaijin. One of my paramours became a long-time friend, who eventually moved to the US, became a citizen, and lives in Santa Fe, (where I lived for 10 years also). We stay in touch often. I found Japan fascinating and immediately was drawn deeply into the culture, wearing geta, and studying Japanese, going often to Kabuki-za, shrines up and down Hon-shu. Returning to the US, with absolutely no intention of living in Delaware (family home), I decided to go for LA, and took a ship from Tokyo to Northern California where I was met by Linda Neal, who drove up there to meet me. She let me stay with her for several months in LA, and then I eventually moved out and found a place of my own. I had every intention of going to graduate school in linguistics, (thank you Gerd Frankle) but somehow the gay life, albeit quite secretive and closeted at that time in LA, captured me totally: mind, spirit and body. Stayed there for three years until I was whisked away by my dear friend Doug to visit San Francisco. That city, THE city, just blew me away. I quit my job in insurance in LA, Doug drove me up to Yosemite where I worked as a waiter for the rest of the season, and then after getting laid off, and eligible for unemployment, moved to the city. Not telling too many stories about my first couple of years there, but finally settled down, got a job teaching ESL to students at a small college in Berkeley, taught and worked as International Student Advisor during the Iran revolution, which was intense as we had many Persian students at the time. Left to return to Japan to work with a sister-school and help them with their English teaching and stayed in Japan for about a year. One day heard a voice with a very distinct Pacific Northwest twang yelling out Bob Bercaw! ’Twas Mr. Moore himself. Tokyo KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 4

is a small town. We reconnected, and I had a great dinner at his house. Job ended and I went back to the same school in Berkeley, but became the registrar. Worked there for a couple more years and my boss at the time had left and moved to work for a foreign student exchange program and offered me a job there. I was with them for five years and got to travel to Japan on business several times via Singapore Air First Class, the Tokyo Hilton, and some of the best dining experiences of my life. Nice to travel on someone else’s money! Sometime during my first couple of years in San Francisco, my same dear friend, Doug, wanted to visit a buddhist temple (can’t remember where), but we dropped in and there was Mokurai (G. Edward), yep the Bay Area is a small town, too. in 1978, joined the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at their very first rehearsal. This group was life changing for me, giving me the space to sing, explore who I was as a gay man, meet a new “family” that I loved with all my heart. Our first public “performance” was four weeks later on the steps of City Hall at a rally just after the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone. We sang just after Joan Baez. Amazing. In 1981 we went on tour, as the first out, gay chorus and I took that opportunity to come out to my family, who all came to see our performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington. AIDS hit San Francisco was time of great fear, scary stories, suspicion, secrets, anger, grief, and profound sadness. I had learned to meditate in the early 70s and was re-initiated just before the 1981 tour. About 50 of us meditated before every performance and experience led to the formation of a monthly gay men’s meditation retreat group. Anywhere from 30 to 60 of us would rent a facility for one weekend a month, and meditate together the entire weekend. This grew into a study group on Ayurveda, and as Dr. Deepak Chopra, and the TM community were involved in exploring the possibilities of using Ayurveda as an adjunctive therapy for people with AIDS, my teacher, Bill, and a few others gathered, set up a non-profit and started an Ayurveda Center in San Francisco to deal mainly with those impacted from AIDS. That center remained functional and open for quite a few years. I worked there from the beginning for five years. It was the “best of times and it was the worst of times”. I lost so many friends that I eventually stopped counting; at one point there were more men listed as the “fifth” section of the chorus (those who had left the planet) than there were singing members. Meditation was just not enough and I had been searching for some kind of spiritual center that resonated with me. In the past years, I had done several Buddhist retreats both in LA and in San Francisco, but decided that was not for me. Suddenly a new “church” came to our Ayurveda Center building and rented space from us. It was called the Spiritual Arts Center. I attended, started taking classes, and it just opened my heart. I became a Licensed Practitioner in 1991. But jump back a year. I met my husband-to- be, Jerry Hodge (Peace Corps-Peru: 1964-1966) at that center when he showed up for a job interview. I knew from the beginning of our relationship that he was not interested in staying in San Francisco, but fully intended to return to his “heart-home” of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fine. We’ll just go for it now and then when you’re ready to leave, buh-bye! Well life does do what it will, and I ended up selling my condo, my Yamaha scooter, buying a used Chevy pickup, boxing up all my crap, and UPSing most of it to Santa Fe, loading up the rest, dog included, into the pickup and driving out in October, never having seen anything of New Mexico, other than a picture. A leap of faith for me! I left behind my almost 20 years of life in the City, to travel to a semi-foreign country. So many of my good friends had already passed away, that it was not nearly as difficult as I had thought. There was not a lot holding on to me any longer in San Francisco, other than a heart full of memories. Almost 10 years in Santa Fe, and quite an adventure it was. I was mostly self-employed as an accounting consultant, but did have a few part-time jobs and eventually a full time job as an accounting manager at a retail stone store. Yep, selling rocks and stones! I remained very active at the local Science of Mind center, teaching, being on the board, and attending services and workshops. I was beginning to KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 5

feel a very strong pull to move closer to my family of origin, who all still lived within 20 miles of Mom and Dad. So I finally decided that it was time to move back east to Delaware. Jerry was not at all excited about this prospect as his heart is and always has been in the Southwest, especially Santa Fe, but kicking and moaning, I dragged him back to the east, a l-o-o-n-g and quiet trip!! We’ve been here almost 12 years now. My mom passed away five years after a major stroke; Dad at 91 is still very much alive and well. My siblings are all nearby and we see each other fairly often, along with nieces and nephews, some cousins and new babies. Jerry and I are in leadership at our local New Thought/Ancient Wisdom Center. It has become a strong, community based (no minister) center where we all just do what is needed to make it happen each week. We have classes, outreach to the community and a prison Radical Forgiveness program. Right now there are usually about 50 who show up on a Sunday to celebrate with guest speakers, internal speakers, and very often “out of the box” services where we stir stuff up and have a great time. I still work (since I want to eat and spend a bit of money) and have a part-time position with a non-profit humanities agency which gives away money to other non-profit organizations for humanities programs and events. Also help my brother with his bookkeeping and accounting, and still have a job that I had in Santa Fe (FedEx and the internet make that work). Three years ago I was bitten by the fiber bug and began spinning yarn, and from there weaving. It is a huge passion in my life. It appeals to my creative side, as well as my love of pattern, and delving deep into weaving structures, mathematics, logic, and indeed, it is a huge, deep, hole, in which to throw money and time! I do suffer from Loom-Lust, but as of yet, not OLAD (Obsessive Loom Acquisition Disorder). Jerry and I are both Classical music (especially Opera) enthusiasts and watch most of Live From the Met broadcasts at our local movie theater, and usher at the Symphony (free tickets!). We continue to spend a lot of time exploring, and learning. Jerry is a docent at the Delaware Contemporary, and has probably been to almost every art museum in the USA— uh yeah,— and almost every one in Paris! I follow…..until my eyes glaze over, and then sit and wait for him to walk through once more. So glad that most museums have cafés and lattes (and I always have my iPhone with books to read; and then there’s Facebook). 4. Brief answers to the following questions: What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc. I became very close to Mr. and Mrs. Suh, and when I lived in Incheon, I spent many weekends at their home in Seoul. There were such an important part of my Korea experience. When I heard fairly recently that Mr. Suh had been assassinated, I just lost it. I literally wept and grieved deeply. I still do. I wish (and still hope) that I can locate and reconnect with Mrs. Suh. I have lots of pictures of them and their son, Eddie. Deep memories there. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? Getting married. As I have always known I was gay, that just was never even an option in my mind that I considered. What a surprise in this life! How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? Don’t know if I can say HOW, but I just know absolutely, that I’m the person I am, because of my Peace Corps experience. What are your goals for the next ten years? Stay alive, celebrate, and have fun! What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? Ask me in private. If you REALLY want to know! KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 6

Carl Stephani & Marilyn Stephani th 5505 East 110 Place Tulsa, OK 74137-7257 Home phone: 918 417 7700 Cell phone: 918 417 9931 Life from K2 training days to the present: • Bachelor’s degree in social science from the University of California at Berkeley, 1967 • Interned at the United Nations, NYC, Summer 1967 • Abandoned use of mind altering substances including alcohol, caffeine, and the other usual suspects; became a vegetarian, 1968. • Master’s degree in Regional Planning from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, 1967-1970 • Experiment in International Living group leader to Spain, summer 1968 • Met Marilyn Clayton, December 1969 • Married Marilyn Clayton, January 1970 • Son Matthew born, November 1970 • New York City Urban Fellow, summer 1970 • Abandoned vegetarianism, summer 1972 • Son Gabriel born, November 1972 • San Diego County Community Planner 8 years • Abandoned atheism, got baptized July 1978 • City of Albany, Oregon, Planner 3 years • By and large abandoned liberalism 1980 • Benton County, Oregon, Planning Director 2 years • Elected Albany, Oregon, city councilman (2 years) 1981 • Elected Linn County, Oregon, County Commissioner (4 years) 1983 • Frisco Colorado Town Manager 3 years • Cave Creek, Arizona, Town Manager 5 years • Wrote ZONING 101 published by the National League of Cities, 1993 • Paradise Valley, Arizona, Community Planning Director 2 years • Established Practical Planning Services Consulting • Gila Bend, Arizona, Town Manager 3 years • Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency Executive Director 14 years • Visited England, November 2005 • Read Bill Bryson’s SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING 2006 • Visited Italy and Germany, September 2007 • Read Cormac McCarthy’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN 2010 • Visited France, September 2011 • Wrote and published THE NEW CITY MANAGER, 2013 • Received 45-year service plaque from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and became a life member of the ICMA and the American Planning Association 2015 • Retired to full-time writing and moved to Tulsa to be near family 2015 KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 7

2. a. What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc. Encouraged me to continue to plan to spend the rest of my professional life in government service b. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? The relationships I have with my wife, sons, grandchildren and friends c. What are your goals for the next ten years? Publish A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA: Hitchhiking from San Diego to Panama in 1961; and write another book every two or three years. d. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? It introduced me to people I will never forget. e. What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? Going to the movies with half a dozen or so to see Dr. Zhivago, with Omar Sharif. Besides us, there were at most half a dozen others in this extremely large theater, including one grossly obese man seated in the middle of the fourth row. In one early scene Sharif was looking longingly out the window of a mountain cabin surrounded by an endless stretch of snow anxious for the arrival of someone – I think it was Lara. Anyway, leading up to the scene, the fat man began to snortle a bit occasionally – as though he were trying to snore. Then the scene reached it’s climax, when Sharif finally sees Lara coming off in the distance (or something like that) - the Theater is silent as the audience absorbs the high romance - and, at that very moment, the fat man bellows out one of the loudest full snores I‘ve ever heard – and it doesn’t wake him up! He continues! Well, some of us were there for the romance, so, after a few minutes of really loud snoring and some unrestrainable laughter, one of us got up and spoke with the attendant. The attendant walked down to the man and tapped him on the shoulder – resulting in the anticipated rapid-fire chortlings and snorts as he woke from his sleep. The snoring ceased – for several minutes. The attendant returned to awaken the man half a dozen times during the movie, to the chuckles of most of the audience, until we all realized that, for us anyway, Dr. Zhivago was not a romance but a comedy. I need to see the movie again, because it is now considered a classic. I’ve totally forgotten what it was about, but the snoring man lives on in my memory brilliantly. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 8

Charles (Chuck) Ahlgren [email protected] 179 Shaw Ave Cranston, RI 02905 401-477-6724 I am sort of an 'honorary' member of the K2 training group, serving as a member of the staff rather than as a prospective volunteer. Since there were no RPCVs from Korea, the Peace Corps found several RPCVs from other countries to help staff the training. I served in Nigeria, 1962-64, and in the summer of 1966 I was half way through a two year MA program at Johns Hopkins (SAIS) and grateful for a chance to earn some money to pay the bills. I don't think I was really needed and I knew almost nothing about Korea. But I very much enjoyed everything about the summer. I particularly enjoyed participating in sports, especially volleyball and softball. We also tried to learn something about soccer, then an exotic sport. Particularly enjoyable was our sojourn at the Y camp in the Smokeys and I also have fond memories of singing along to Bob Dylan songs, etc. I remember a professor from Tufts, Greg Henderson I think was his name, who gave a lecture on Korean ceramics that opened aesthetic doors. The only thing about the experience I didn't like was the selection out of trainees, which seemed to me to be highly arbitrary and excessive. A year after Nashville I finished grad school and joined the Foreign Service. I never got to Korea, but did meet and work with Americans of Korean descent and other Korean RPCVs in the Foreign Service. Nashville also gave me an appreciation of the South, and I was later to live in Montgomery, Alabama for several years. I also obtained a lifelong friend in another staff member, Carl Stephani. I had a thirty year career in the Foreign Service and owe it all to the opportunity the Peace Corps provided. My foreign service career took me to Ethiopia, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand and Venezuela. I also taught at West Point and several senior military schools while in the foreign service, and at Lawrence University and Providence College upon retirement. After the Foreign Service I taught diplomatic history at Providence College and learned something of the shameful betrayal of Korea by the U.S. I enjoyed a wonderful 42 year marriage which ended with the passing of my wife 16 months ago. I have two children, a boy and a girl, and one granddaughter (another on the way). A major personal goal for the next ten years is to try and stick around and enjoy them. I remarried a year and a half ago; Nancy and I live six months in Incline Village, Nevada, and the other six in Rhode Island. I have been blessed with all of this, not least with sharing the Nashville experience with the wonderful K2 group. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 9

Charles Looney [email protected] 3411 Wilcox Road C 35 Lihue, HI 96766 Phone 1: 808-652-0640 Phone 2: 808-246-0751. Life Summary: 3 or 4 mos. after training I dropped out of college (and thereby the Korea program) and went roaming with a friend across the Southweat until we ran out of money in Colorado, where we both got jobs with the Job Corps as Youth counselors. Some months later I went East to visit friends in Boston (where I saw Margo and Suzanne), NY, and D.C. By this time I'd become an active opponent of the Vietnam war and a spear-carrier in the Olney Theater "Richard III" to pay the rent.As this was all pretty dead-end and stressful I decided to give the PC another chance, resulting in my joining training for Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) 1. 2 great years in Africa (Burkia Faso and Chad) as a welldigger then back to NY where I joined my future wife Joan for the next 41 years until her death from cancer in 2011. Along the way we raised a boy and a girl who now are raising 3 boys. My first job was with the Federal poverty program (OEO) where I was instrumental in saving the Lake Placid Bobsled run in time to allow Lake Placid to bid on the 1980 Olympics as a "complete" winter sports venue. The next 20 years I spent with EEOC, first as Investigator of employment discrimination cases, then as Director of the Buffalo, then the Boston office. At this last post we had a huge dust-up with the Red Sox which attracted a lot of media attention and ultimately ended well. I retired early and did a few years consulting in New England before Joan and I moved to Kauai in 2001. Misc. items: 1) Since I am from the South (LA) my first reaction was to wonder if a second Norther incursion was underway, but with a better class of soldier. Being all college seniors, however, persuaded me that beer was more likely than battle. It seems to me now that we blended rather easily with one another, not surprising considering how much we all had in common. 2) My long, deep bond with Joan is the most meaningful part of my life. 3) My 10 year goal is to self-publish a second book of poetry. Ken has a copy of my first and he might be persuaded to bring it with him to the reunion if anyone is interested. 4) Participation in K2 training was the experience that brought me to my second PC training, to Africa, to a bunch of people with whom I remain friends today. Only now do I recognize how important it was on putting me on the path that I have followed for a lifetime. In thanks to all K2 trainees I have attached a short poem in appreciation. 5) Besides the empty beer kegs in the front yard of our house the image that remains clearest in my mind is the one of Ralph flipping neatly over Margo's head as he jammed his foot to a stop against hers in pursuit of a soccer ball. That and the look of despair on Edward's face as he attempted to teach me GO or partnered with me at the Bridge table. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 10

David Eisenstein [email protected] 9405 Wildoak Drive Bethesda, MD 20814 Home phone: 301-530-1007 Cell phone: 301-938-6995 2. My life: nothing very special. After the Peace Corps, which I left in January ’68 on a medical discharge, I went to law school and graduated in 1971. I went to work for the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare as an attorney in the Civil Rights Division doing school desegregation cases. I got, and remain, married (to the

same woman) in 1972. In 1974 I left government and followed my wife to Ann Arbor, MI. There she did her final residency to become a doctor and I went into private practice for a few years — which I did not enjoy. I returned to government service and spent the next 36 years or so mostly working at the FDIC where I sued officers and directors, lawyers and accountants, at banks and thrifts that had failed and gone into receivership (i.e. bankruptcy — ask Donald Trump about that). I retired a few years ago and now I volunteer at a number of non-profits (I’ve generally been pretty good at non-profit), travel, and play with my grandkids. In a few/lots of years someone will be able to write “the end” and that is that. I think that will do it for contact — as for selling it, from the amount of @#$%^ I get in the mail, e- mail and by phone, it would appear that there is no one left to sell it to. 4. Answers to your questions: a. My “reactions” were that I enjoyed the training and found it fun. My memories of the PC people are positive. My memories of the south and Nashville are that it was pretty much as I had imagined it: people that I met there were pretty conservative with values with which I did not agree. During our project going out into the city I met a number of very pleasant people, but none with whom I could agree on much. I am not sure what else you want or are looking for but my reactions were and are positive. The training remains a good memory despite the short PC service in-country. b. There is no answer to this. My family and my work have been the heart of my life since I graduated from law school. I would say that my wife and progeny, and now my grandchildren, afford me the most lasting pleasure, but my work was at times very hard, very challenging and quite rewarding (especially when I won, of course). I am now very glad to be retired. c. My goals — to remain in reasonably good health and continue to enjoy my family, my volunteer work, and travel. When I can’t do that anymore I would hope to be able to administer the black capsule. d. I’m not really sure that it has/did change my life very much. I was always going to law school. I had been accepted before I left for Korea and continued on that path. e. Too numerous to write but I do remember sharing “adult beverages” with people sitting on a lawn in front of a house in Nashville with David Schiller playing his guitar (and me trying to chord along); I recall some “jerk” explaining to us how Korea, and the PCVs, were part of the circle of containment of KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 11

COMMUNIST CHINA, and that we were “shock troops” if the North ever invaded (how funny is that? I think that is the best I can do — although my long term memory is pretty good (at least compared to

my short term memory) I will have to think about these things more before we meet in LA. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 12

David Schiller [email protected] 548 Woodland Hills Drive Athens, GA 30606 Phone: 706-546-0185 (1969-1973) In 1969 I returned to New York City. I was able to get a one-year draft deferment by enrolling in theology school at UTS. Later that year the first draft lottery was held. I received number 350, which freed me from any personal concern about being drafted. The following year I worked as an attendant in a psych hospital, and then taught English at George Washington H.S. in N.Y. After that I went to graduate school in Social Work, and got my M.S.W. in 1973. Later that year Treat and I separated and divorced. [As some of you know, Treat passed away on February 15, 1992, of complications from lymphoma following a bone-marrow transplant. Some months before her death, she wrote a very eloquent summary of her life; it is in the Life Tributes, under her own name.] (1973-1984) I worked as a clinical social worker in the New York area until 1977. Then I moved to LA and continued working in psychiatric and hospital social work. In 1981 I married Christy Desmet, a grad student at UCLA. In 1984 Christy was hired as an English professor by UGA, and we moved to Athens. (1984-2012) After we moved to Athens, I started working on a midlife career change from social work to musicology. I finished my Ph.D. in 1996, and taught at Morris Brown College in Atlanta for a year. The next year, I got hired back at UGA, and I retired in 2012. During this time, Christy was diagnosed with cancer on two separate occasions, the first time in 1992, and the second time in 2000. She survived thanks to a stem-cell transplant, essentially the same procedure that had been used in the attempt to cure Treat's cancer. (2012-2015) In February of 2015 Christy was awarded a Fulbright to teach for a semester at Yonsei's new international campus in Songdo, Incheon, so I got to live in Korea again for five months. We brought our dog with us, and one of my best recent stories is about how I pleaded with Team Leader Kim to allow us to remain in our dorm apartment with a dog. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 13

Richard D. (Dick) Pallett [email protected] (home) [email protected] (volunteer work) 26671 Chester Drive Laguna Hills, CA 92653 Home phone: 949.643. Cell phone: 949.922.3462 (cell used on travel or for emergencies only) Shortly after our December 1966 Peace Corp group’s meeting in Washington DC I reached that proverbial divide in the road having to choose to go left or go right. It was a big decision and I have since pondered many times how my life would have been different had I chosen differently. I chose the easy path and opted not to join the group in continuing on to Korea. The reasons behind my choice were many, but I think the primary driver was my father’s continued reluctance to see me leave the country to do volunteer work; after having sacrificed to fund my way through college he thought I should get on with my professional career. I subsequently was graduated from the University of Washington in June 1967 with a BS degree in Chemistry. Like all young men at that time I was faced with the draft and completed for my pre-draft physical a month prior to graduation. About the same time I ventured into a job fair at UW and completed an interview and application for US Government employment. Sight unseen I was offered employment by the U.S. Air Force at the Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards AFB, CA in the Mojave Desert. (Along with the job came a potential job deferment from the draft, but that only lasted a short year when draft selection was converted to a lottery system.) Accepting the job was at another proverbial divide in the road; my professional career was now firmly directed toward the field of rocket propulsion. The move from Seattle to the Mojave Desert was stressful. I had known what a desert looked like, but I had never anticipated how much I would miss the Pacific Northwest. It took me several years to get to the point where I actually liked living in the desert, but then it was off to northern Utah where I took employment as a propellant chemist with a company that designed, DEVELOPED, and manufactured rockets. The best part of my sojourn to Utah which lasted about three years was the skiing. In winters I would ski both days of nearly every weekend during the ski season. One would think that I would have honed my skiing skills with the potential for becoming a Winter Olympic standout, but that was not the case. Even with the best equipment, best slopes, and optimum opportunities I never graduated much past the stem turn. I never fully appreciated the culture of Utah and was drawn back to California where I took employment with a company in San Bernardino providing engineering support to the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Organization. That job was perhaps the low point of my career as I had a significant personality conflict with my immediate supervisor. I dislike going into the office so much that I voluntarily opted to have my wisdom teeth removed just to get out of work; l still rue the day I decided to have all four wisdom teeth removed at the same time when I could have had them removed in pairs, allowing me to take double the time off from the job. As you can imagine, the job eventually ended with termination cloaked as a “reduction of force”. I was so soured on working that in 1976 I took 18 months off and moved to the beach (Laguna Beach, CA) and lived on my savings. It is at the beach or nearby that I have lived ever since. When my savings became depleted I took employment with a Ford Aerospace in Newport Beach, CA were I was responsible engineer for the production of several tactical rocket motors. I worked for Ford Aerospace KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 14

for 20 years and when they were absorbed in the consolidation of the aerospace industry I moved on to work at the Boeing Co. in Huntington Beach, CA and in Seal Beach, CA. I worked for Boeing for 10 years. While at Huntington Beach I was involved in the design and fabrication of the third stage of Delta IV launch vehicles; I was then transferred to Seal Beach, CA where I led a team of young engineers in the design, development, fabrication, qualification, and operation of a satellite propulsion system for use on a black program. It was from this last job that I retired from Boeing in 2007. My personal life has had its ups and downs. I never married nor do I have any children. I have now lived at my current residence in Laguna Hills, CA for 32 years. It is located in southern Orange County about half way between Los Angeles and San Diego. Currently I share my home with three cats that, like me, are getting up there in years. In 1998 I suffered a heart attack resulting in by-pass surgery. My parents who skipped the winters in eastern Washington would stay annually with me during the winter months. They eventually moved permanently into my home in 1998 where they resided until their deaths in 2008. I have done some traveling. I finally made it to Korea in the early 1980’s when my job took me to the Camp Stanley and another U.S. Army camp near the DMV. I traveled to the Peoples Republic of China shortly after it was opened to outside visitors; as part of a small tour group I spent 4 weeks in 1984 traveling in China. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy cruises to Alaska, South America, the Mediterranean and Black Sea. I have also ventured to Egypt, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Turkey has always been one of my favorite places. I first visited there in 1965 spending the summer in Istanbul with two Turkish friends I met at the UW and their families. I have since revisited Turkey three times and hope to return soon. What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc? Those 10 weeks in Nashville were enjoyable for me as I was presented with the opportunity to do and see things that I had never been exposed to. It was my first trip to the South and I have never experienced that type of humidity before….it seems I was always dripping wet. I would look forward to the thunderstorms that came daily as they brought some momentary cooling, but were always followed by even more stifling humidity. I enjoyed the Southern food we were served at the cafeteria….all except okra! I even liked the collard greens and the desserts were fantastic. I enjoyed all my fellow trainees but unfortunately 10 weeks was not enough for me to forge lasting friendships. The one thing I did not like was the intense feeling that final acceptance by the PC for overseas placement was most important and anything less was failure. The battery of evaluations, personality tests, psychologist and psychiatrist meetings required for final acceptance, while understandable, resulted in increased anxiety for every trainee. I felt badly when I would learn that someone had been deselected and sent away without even the opportunity of saying goodbye. That was the part of the Peace Corps process that I did not like. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? This is a hard one to answer. Surviving Los Angeles traffic without a major road rage incident certainly ranks high. Surviving long enough to retire is another major accomplishment. Since retiring I do volunteer work as the office manager for a small non-profit organization called ‘Justice In Education’; we primarily deal with low income families that have children with learning disabilities and other special needs. Our goal is to provide assistance to these families and their children to assure that they receive the educational that is required by law. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 15

What are your goals for the next ten years? My goals are simple: maintain my health and happiness. I do hope to travel some more and have actually been toying with the idea of living overseas for several months each year. I am drawn to Istanbul or the Turkish coast on the Aegean Sea, but the unraveling of the Middle East in recent years is making that dream questionable. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? Participation in K2 training really had only a minimal effect on my life. I am sure that had I chosen to proceed to Korea with the group the impact on my life would have been monumental. What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? I have several memories of our K2 training that come easily to mind. I was in the first group of men to live in the empty house a few blocks from the Peabody College campus. I have included photos of both the back and front of the K2 homestead to refresh everyone’s memory. We all slept on mattresses on the floor and we lived out of our suitcases placed next to our mattresses. My sleeping area was in what was probably the dining room; the door to the dining room opened into a small hall. A sewage pipe from the upstairs bathroom was behind the hall wall just across from the dining room door. It was only after a few days living in the house that we discovered there was a leak in the sewage pipe. Every time the toilet upstairs was flushed a small amount of sewage entered the hall. I don’t really understand how we all did not come down with typhoid fever. I also have memory of one Friday evening when a group of us were wondering what we were going to do that evening. For our entertainment we opted to go downtown Nashville and attend a session of night court. I don’t recall who all went, but our venture into the seedy side of Nashville could almost be a case of schadenfreude. We stayed until the early hours of the morning and watched as constables brought sundry scofflaws, drunks and vagrants before the judge.

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We all were assigned a special project during our training session. I seem to recall that some of us took part in an “undercover” operation working with Nashville authorities…something that sounded interesting to me. My assignment, however, was teaching and I was led into a Nashville high school to assist in teaching biology. My class consisted mostly of high school seniors who had failed the course during regular school year and now were taking the summer session class to fulfill graduation requirements. (It was a moot point that attendance alone was probably sufficient to assure passing course.) I was only a few years older than these students and I actually identified with them more that with the teacher. They could see a pack of cigarettes in my pocket and would often ask for a cigarette. Fortunately I had the presence of mind not to contribute to the delinquency of a minor. I explained to my supervising teacher that the only biology that I had taken was in my sophomore year of high school and I was far from qualified to teach biology. He assured me that all was OK and that I would do just fine. And all was OK as every night I worked on preparing the assignment for next day’s class. I literally stayed one day ahead of the class. All worked out fine until I had to teach a lab class in the dissection of a frog. Every student had a frog fresh from the formaldehyde jar and was proceeding to disembowel the poor creature when one young lady screamed as a mass of innards unexpectedly popped out of her frog’s belly with her first dissecting cut. She asked me what they were and I immediately referred back to an anatomical chart. Alas, there was nothing on the chart to give me any indication as to what we were looking at. I had to get the teacher who, in turn, humorously pointed out that we had a female frog and she was about to lay eggs when she entered the formaldehyde jar. I was undone, my ruse was apparent, and it was obvious that I was not the biology expert that the students were led to believe. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 17

Edward Cherlin [email protected] 300 Flatrock Drive Columbus IN 47201 Home phone: 812-372 4267 Cell phone: 812-764 0552 When I left Korea I went to Kyoto, Japan, intending to join the First Zen Institute of America. However, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, its founder, had just died, and it was inactive. I attended sesshin at Ryutakuji, under Mt. Fuji, and then discovered Soto Zen, and entered monastic training at Unpukuji in Mie-ken, between Nagoya and Ise. Rev. Abbess Jiyu Kennett claimed later that I saved her life by doing so. I spent a month in Korea getting a visa, and was taken on a tour of Korean monasteries by a monk whom I met just after getting off the boat from Japan. Later that year we moved to California, setting up in San Francisco, then Oakland, then near Mt. Shasta. Rev. Kennett had been working on a book about Soto Zen for some years, including translations from the founders of Soto Zen in Japan, Dogen Zenji and Keizan Zenji. We took a copy along on a visit to Alan Watts on his houseboat in Sausalito, where I handed him a copy, and we then fell to talking about various aspects of Buddhism. Watts had been a prominent member of the Buddhist Society in London, UK, where he and Rev. Kennett had been friends before she went to Japan for training. Watts mentioned that he had particularly wanted to see translations of Dogen, and I said that Rev. Kennett had done some. "Where are they?" he asked excitedly. "In your hands," I pointed out. So then he introduced us to his publisher, Pantheon, who was delighted to publish the book as Selling Water By the River. I was Rev. Kennett's personal assistant for some years, then ran monasteries in the north of England and in Oakland CA. I later married a fellow priest, and after some time we moved to Silicon Valley, where I became a high-tech market analyst. A few years later we moved back to Mt. Shasta, when I was able to work for several publishers remotely, and to be paid from time to time to go to high-tech conferences and report on them at length. Then I returned to Silicon Valley as a technical writer for a variety of high-tech companies,

to write occasional papers for programming and Unicode conferences, and to volunteer with One Laptop Per Child and a number of its partner organizations. Since 2009 my wife and I have been retired, first living with her aged parents and then on our own in the house she inherited from them. I continue to volunteer and to blog, and we are both active in local KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 18

politics. We have two children, a daughter Sarah and a son Clement, both engaged to be married. a. What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc. It was eye-opening to see the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act up close and personal on both sides, with Black and White communities so fiercely engaged in trying to advance and reverse the progress made up to that time. And here we are fifty years later engaged in exactly the same fights, except with the likelihood of Angry Whites becoming a clear minority all through the South in the next generation. b. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? Continuing the work by many other means, including Buddhist monastic training, working as a high- tech market analyst and technical writer, volunteering with One Laptop Per Child and its partners, and political blogging and activism. c. What are your goals for the next ten years? I prefer not to pick out goals myself, but to throw myself into the best opportunities that arise. Critical issues include global poverty, oppression, and war; Global Warming; and the impact of US politics on everything. d. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? I got to live with a family of Buddhists, refugees from North Korea during the War. Then I became a Buddhist. I got to see both the needs of the developing countries, and one path forward that has been quite successful. As a result of learning some Korean, and then Japanese and Chinese and Sanskrit, I became involved with the Unicode movement, which has resulted in a single character set for nearly all written languages. I have helped out with One Laptop Per Child's language needs, which include more than 100 languages. e. What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? Funny: Playing the part of Pabo in our Hin Nun play in training. The first night with my new family they were watching TV and eating snacks, and offered me some. I tried a pepper, which turned out to be super hot, so that after fifteen seconds, when it hit fully, I had tears streaming down my cheeks, with the family rolling on the floor with laughter. Then they explained that I was supposed to take a mouthful of rice with each pepper. My instafilk (a term invented many years later) of The Frozen Logger as The Frozen Volunteer, published in �� As I sat down one evening In a 다 �out my way A 40-year old �� To me these words did say: "I see you are a Volunteer And not a common bum, KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 19

For no-one but a Volunteer Stirs ��with his thumb. It froze clear through to �국, It froze to the stars above, At a thousand degrees below zero, It froze my Peace Corps love. etc. Interesting: Student riots with tear gas Child beggars Walking into North Korea and around the truce building at �� The appearance of real chocolate and �� 라 on the market, the opening of the first German bakery, the opening of the first produce store guaranteeing no use of nightsoil as fertilizer, so that one could eat salad without fear of parasites. The Pueblo incident The North Korean assassination team, which only managed to throw a hand grenade on a bus, killing a school janitor who was a friend of a K-I volunteer KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 20

Frank Berry Lane [email protected] 8 Earthaven Drive Waddy, KY 40076 Cell Phone: 502-682-7988 When I returned to college from Nashville, I was scheduled to go to Korea upon graduation. Instead, I was told near the end of my Senior year that I would not be going because of a shoulder prone to dislocation. I had no Plan B. Thankfully, my college rescued me by hiring me as an Admissions Counselor for a year. This gave me time to figure out what to do next. I applied to graduate schools, and got a full fellowship in Political Science at the University of Virginia starting the fall semester of '68. Meanwhile, my number came up in the draft lottery, and I was called in for my pre- induction physical, The same condition that ended my Peace Corps plans earned me a 4F from the Selective Service. I didn't have to make the very hard decision on how to resolve my opposition to the war with possible induction. I can't say for sure what I would have done had fate not stepped in. I heard from David Eisenstein while still in Danville, and Susan Jamieson visited me there. I also visited her college, Lake Erie College for Women, which she called the Lake College for Eerie Women. We kept up a correspondence. The Summer of '68 I went to the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, Maine, where in an idyllic setting I studied pottery and weaving. It was an experience, like Nashville, that colored the rest of my life. One clear night several of us camped out on a boulder near shore to look at the stars. We fell asleep, and were awakened by the cold Atlantic lapping at our hands and feet. The tide had come in, and we had to wade in waist high water and darkness to shore. I took the train from Louisville to Charlottesville to start my graduate studies at UVA. I didn't enjoy political science at UVA like I had at Centre. Studies were concentrated on the workings of the Soviet System – a drudgery of information unlike the buffet of subjects in undergraduate school. After one year I changed my studies to Russian Literature. I'd had four years of Russian Language at Centre and one year at UVA. I definitely liked the new studies better. I started attending a Friends meeting in Charlottesville. When a special edition of Life magazine came out listing the name and picture of every American who had lost their life in the Vietnam war, our meeting went to DC to sit on the Capitol steps and read every name. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell joined us, and our picture was on the front page of the Washington Post the next day. I enjoyed another visit from Susan while at UVA and then I visited her in NYC. She showed me where she painted and danced, and I felt like Gomer Pyle. Back in Charlottesville, I met a young woman named Jeannie and everything changed. Chasing the dream of my summer on the Maine coast, Jeannie and I left Charlottesville behind and headed, generally, in that direction. When we got as far as Vermont, we stopped in St Albans, and with our last KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 21

$60 rented an unfurnished apartment over a garage. Within a couple weeks, we both had jobs at the Medical Center in Burlington; Jeannie in dietary and I in supplies. A lot of the low level employees were Conscientious Objectors working out their service requirement, so it was a community we fit right into. Soon we moved to a small farmhouse on the side of Mt Mansfield in Underhill to be closer to work. Incredibly, we didn't freeze, though the toilet did. We even made it to work every day through what was to us a brutal winter. It was beautiful. The tamarack tree outside our window rained gold needles on the snow when the wind blew. Once under the covers we were warm, though we could see our breath, and I would read a story about the Russian steppe. In 1970, my brother and his girlfriend joined us and we moved into an apartment in Burlington. By then, Jeannie was doing nutrition counseling for the city, and I was the Chief of Circulation at the Fletcher Free Library. It was at this time that I saw Susan Jamieson for the last time. I think she was still living in NYC. Burlington was a hotbed of back-to-the-land activity, and we started dreaming of a small piece of land and building our own home. We read and re-read Living the Good Life by the Nearings. That's what we wanted...our own home; our own food; music and friends. When my parents offered us 5 acres at the back of a 20 acre parcel they had bought in Waddy, Kentucky, we decided to head home. We got back to Kentucky in April, 1972, and started building our stone house; planting fruit trees and all the other homesteading stuff. It was a long hard slog...much more difficult than we imagined when reading the Nearings in Vermont. Nevertheless, we built the forms; collected field stone; mixed concrete and finally managed to turne our five acres into pretty much what we had wanted. To bring in some money while we built our house and our family, I started as a substitue rural carrier. Ultimately this led to full time, then to Human Resources in Lexington, then to Postmaster of Salvisa, Kentucky, and finally a management position at the main facility in Lexington. (That compresses thirty plus years into one awkward sentence.) Jeannie earned a primary teaching degree and then her Masters. She taught Kindergarten in the Franklin County School System. Our daughters, Abby and Molly were born in 1976 and 1979. We were very happy, and very busy. Besides just the day to day of two active girls and our jobs, we always had a garden and planted hundreds of trees. In a carry over from our Vermont days, we made maple syrup every year. Every June, we went to the same house on Sea Grape Lane in Sanibel Florida. Life was good and stayed good. Then, in the first year of the new century, Jeannie started having some health problems. It turned out to be bladder cancer. She had major surgeries and chemo and we were on the rollercoaster of hope and despair. She continued teaching and being the brilliant, funny wife and mom she was. She died in 2004 at the age of 53. My life could have ended then, and, for a while, I felt like it had. But, I had two incredible daughters and a profound love of life. After a while, I met Elaine, another teacher, and, coincidentally a Phyllis who went by her middle name, just like Jeannie. We married in 2009. Both my daughters are married now too, and I have a granddaughter from each, Isa and Gloria. Once again, life is good. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 22

We built, or in this case I should say, had built another house on the same farm. Actually, we did most of the interior and all the landscaping. So, that's pretty much it. Our life is relatively simple now and we know how lucky we are. Elaine and I do the NYT Crossword every morning. It may not stave off dementia, but it does make us good at doing crosswords. We love our English mysteries on Acorn, and in fact lived for a week in the thatched cottage once owned by Graham Greene in Chipping Camden. Elaine enjoys making cards, and I've built about a dozen more dulcimers. We make and serve cornbread once a month at a soup kitchen in Shelbyville, and I was an after school tutor for Hispanic students in a program called Arriba Ninos. I look forward to having my sketchy memories of Nashville fleshed out at the reunion. I recognize every face in the group picture, although I have no idea where I was when it was taken. Of course, I remember language studies on the lawn; the one-on-one language test in North Carolina. I do not remember the trip to NC—how did we get there? I remember David Schiller singing a particularly poignant rendition of Dylan's “All I Really Want to Do” where the words “Or select you or dissect you, Or inspect you or reject you...” impacted many of us. During one break in the training, Susan and I hitch hiked to a friend’s wedding in Kentucky, and then on to my school in Danville. Maybe that's when a lot of stuff happened. It's been a long time and I'm looking forward to being together again. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 23

George F. Delaney [email protected] 912 Alison Avenue Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-3907 Home phone (private): 717-790-9694 Cell phone: 717-497-3271 After graduation from Boston College (BC) in 1967, and following a lengthy chartered flight from San Francisco via Manila to the Republic of Korea, I was assigned to Kang Won Province, the Sam Chok Junior/Senior High School. Sam Chok was exactly the kind of place I wished for, a remote small town along the Eastern Sea. My classroom work, and community classes for businessmen, while rewarding, were not, however, where I felt I was doing the most good. Periodically, over weekends, a K 1 volunteer from up the coast and I teamed up to walk into the hills and seek out those tuberculosis patients who had not returned to the local clinic for follow-up treatment. If they did not return, their conditions would not only worsen, but they would build up a resistance to the limited supply of medication the clinic had provided. There were some who listened. Noteworthy, for relaxation was a bicycle trip Jim Stroud, Ron Rezac and I took down the coast on an un-finished Japanese gravel railroad bed, where we encountered all sorts of weather and some very interesting characters indeed. The trip has taken on an Homeric aura in our collective minds. I married my college sweetheart, Patricia Flynn two months after returning home in 1969. Pat and I had corresponded continually, both throughout my summer in Nashville, and for my two years in Sam Chok, while she was finishing her final two years at BC. She waited. How lucky am I? Coming from a law enforcement family, I had always aspired to the FBI, and in October, 1970 I was appointed a Special Agent with a first assignment in Buffalo, N.Y., and the second to the Philadelphia Division, Harrisburg Resident Agency. I picked up a Masters Degree at Penn State along the way. I retired from the Bureau in 2002, six months short of being mandatory. While performing a variety of work in all program areas, my specialty toward the end was political corruption and financial investigations. Our office investigated and prosecuted the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Auditor General and Treasurer, among others, as well as the executive leadership of the Rite Aid Corporation. After the fall of the Berlin wall, I taught this specialty overseas to law enforcement officers from Russia, Eastern Europe and the Central Asian Republics. These sessions were in Russia, Budapest, and Almaty, Kazakhstan and were under the auspices of the Department of State. I described it to a friend as “Peace Corps with a badge.” For the ten years following retirement, I worked for the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board (JCB) investigating allegations of ethical violations by some judges. We removed some and rightly exonerated most. One thing I valued greatly over the years, in both the FBI and the JCB, was being able to form friendly relationships with some of those I prosecuted. The common denominator was that they accepted responsibility for their actions, and felt they were treated fairly. I had lunch with one such gentleman last month. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 24

Korea has been an abiding love of my life for 50 years beginning in Nashville in 1966. I love the country, the people, the work ethic, and I have such admiration both for what they have and continue to endure, and for what they have accomplished economically. They share with the Irish people a history of repressive colonialism, including an attempt to eradicate their language. Koreans exhibit strong human passion and pride, and laughter, and even tears of great vulnerability at times unexpected. In Nashville, I was impressed with the assembled staff, locals and imports, Koreans and Americans. Although I now forget her name, I recall the George Peabody College for Teachers Class president welcoming us and joining us for some activities; Jim Stelling was the smiling and capable Administrator and George Worth; a kind, humble and capable leader, who might be the best listener I ever encountered. Mr. Kim was a language teacher, who had escaped the North; seemingly happy go lucky, with his hearty smile. The Suhs; so many nice evenings in their living room….no hint of the horrific tragedy their family would publicly endure in Rangoon, Burma in the early 80s. I loved the slower pace of life in Nashville and the kindly manners. (Confession time. I arrived from Boston with an unrecognized prejudice. After all, Boston was the Hub of the Universe!) Well, Nashville, calling itself Athens of the South, did not strike me as credible. Then the Grand Old Opry. Really? I thought Nashville was laughably pretentious. Did they have a lot to learn? Of course, it was I who had a lot to learn. Wasn’t that the larger point of Peace Corps in Nashville, after all? Other people; other cultures. Accept and appreciate. Learn how it ticks. How embarrassing to say that, now, after all these years. I have not been back since; but am so looking forward to it. I loved the fun soccer games which challenged my stamina and killed me after 2 trips down the field, while our Korean friends seemed like they were just getting started. And the volleyball games. Remember how they served the ball? I used that serve for years when I joined a mens’ night league. Devastating Delaney serve, at least in my mind. I disliked the early morning classes with Dr. Gerd Frankl, who was intense, knowledgeable and painfully sincere. “Phonemes” still ring in my ears, but I have no clue what it means. He always seemed to be asking me to say “hot dog” to make some obscure point about vowel pronunciation. Someone realized these classes were not helping our language studies and, thankfully, scrapped them from the schedule. I loved the community development project where we attempted to find out how Nashville worked, visibly to appearances and invisibly behind the scenes; a transferable and worthy goal for Korea…and life. The meeting with Mr. Flippen was noteworthy; the subdued tension and electricity in the room when he was asked “Is it true you control a majority of votes on City Counsel?” I thought of that moment often in my career. I greatly disliked the peer evaluations which arguably led in some measure to some among us being deselected. I hope that any weight given was minimal. I do wonder about that technique, and how prevalent its use was then, and whether Peace Corps or any organization still uses it? One who was deselected was Jim Dallas. Jim later served two years in Malaysia in the Peace Corps. He met his future wife there, and Pat and I attended their wedding in Mason City, Iowa in 1977. The last I knew Jim was teaching science in Houston, Texas, but hoped to return to Malaysia to live permanently some day. The future. I will continue as Chair of our local chapter of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. I expect to be certified soon as a volunteer ESOL teacher to a class of Somali and Chinese immigrants through Catholic Charities. Any immigrant experience is difficult as I know from my own parents, and they spoke English. And, don’t laugh, I have embarked on a journey to reclaim my lost fluency, modest as it was, in the Korean language. Why? I would love to be in a position to offer my language services to the Red Cross, in the event in the next five years, there are a flood of refugees KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 25

from the North who need to be interviewed for resettlement, either in place there, or here in the States. I am so fortunate to still be married to my college sweetheart, Patricia; that our love has stood the test of time. In a fit of youthful exuberance, when we were newly married, and as if cleansing our souls from the memory of a long separation, we burned our letters in our fireplace that first winter. Ouch! The years went by and now we have four healthy children, ages 30 to 45, a great daughter and son in law, and 6 healthy and vibrant grandchildren including four who are quadruplets. We expect our family to be welcoming another daughter-in-law and her daughter into our family in the foreseeable future. Having turned 70 in January, now more than ever, I appreciate having been able to work for agencies whose missions were and are Peace and Justice. Mostly however, I love how my children love each other, and how they teach and show that love to their children; a circle of love and a legacy forever, I hope. I have been truly blessed since I last saw all of you fifty years ago and I now look forward to renewing those acquaintances. I do hope life has been good to each of you as well! Spring, 2016 KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 26

Jim Dallas [email protected] 13731 Oakwood Lane Sugar Land, Texas 77498 Home phone: 281-491-9781 For the Past 50 years. After leaving training in Nashville, Tennessee I went back to the University of Iowa to complete my degree in Chemistry and Zoology. Of course, I thought I would be leaving for Korea upon graduation, except for one sad fact. I was told at the end of training that I would be asked to reapply for another program in another country. I had been deselected to serve in Korea. This changed everything that I had planned. Making new plans, I volunteered to serve as a VISTA volunteer for the summer of 1967. If you remember, there were riots in L.A. and Washington, D.C. President Johnson suggested to VISTA that volunteers should be sent to the impacted areas to serve as examples of his continued support of the African-Americans. It was an eye-opening experience to live in Anacostia and be bused to a suburban school in Maryland where Carolyn Kennedy was attending second grade during the regular school year. So, 60 children and 20 volunteers spent the summer teaching and befriending primary-aged children. I lived with a family of six boys. None of these children participated in the summer program. In addition to learning about the difficult economic problems of African-American families, learned that politics govern the lives of everyone who lived in D.C. My favorite politician was Hubert Humphry, Vice President, who took it upon himself to ensure that the Volunteers learned about racism on an individual basis. In my adopted family I learned that black couples never can predict the blackness of their children. The oldest boy in my family was nearly as white as I am. Yet his youngest brother was coal-black. This difference in color determined status in the family. I learned that segregation of public D.C. pools could be maintained by insisting that swimmers were given one-hour allotments to swim. That would mean that children who came on the bus must time their arrival on the hour. If you came after the hour, you must wait for the next hour to enter the pool. This made the busing of 60 children nearly impossible because of the tight schedules. One call to Hubert Humphry changed the pool schedule immediately. Our director was superb at managing the levers of power to insure our programs success. I received my master’s degree in the Fall of 1968. I majored in Botany. I went immediately to Oak Park, Illinois to teach Biology to 9th graders. It was here that I was introduced to Politics 101, Richard Daley style. I thought my political world was about to end. Riots in the parks and streets. Police targeted my VW and me as a dissident. Hubert Humphry wanted to be President In June I received my bus money to go to Fort Hood in Des Moines, Iowa for my induction into the Army. My deferment had ended. The first morning, 4 a.m. I found myself amongst 300 men completely naked but for paper shoes. We were tested physically and mentally. We were given cognitive tests. In preparation to complete the test, the forms requested legal information about our conduct. It became apparent to me that not everyone had a sheltered life. We were asked if we had been sentenced for crimes that resulted in a felony. As I filled out the form, a number of potential inductees asked, “Is killing your mother and dad a felony?” Or, “I was picked up for selling LSD. “Is this a felony?” Soon the room filled with laughter. But I look back at this experience as telling how afraid we were that soon we would have to step forward and pledge our allegiance to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. I was kept for two days to decide if my blood pressure would recede to normal levels. It did not. I was 4F and sent home. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 27

I found a job in a small city not far from my hometown. I remained in Garner, Iowa until 1970. I applied to go to Malaysia as a science teacher in 1970. I trained in-country. No Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory to complete. I taught at a government secondary school. My students were Form V and Form III. I taught English (British), Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Art. I traveled throughout Sarawak on the island of Borneo. I left Lutong Secondary School in December 1971. After 32 groups in Sarawak, it was apparent that Malaysia produced enough native teachers who could easily replace me in this school. In 1972 our family in Iowa increased in number with the addition of a Malaysian student. He lived with me for four years. He eventually received a Petroleum Engineering degree from University of Oklahoma in Stillwater. To support this Malaysian student, I managed a Target store in my hometown. After two years my aunt sold me her neighborhood bar. One year later I joined my aunt and mother to open a restaurant in a small nearby village. I learned that Norwegians love to drink alcohol. After two years, we sold the restaurant. I continued for one year (part of the deal). The English teacher with whom I taught in Malaysia arrived in November 1976. We were married in June 1977. I re-enrolled at the University of Iowa to complete my Doctorate in Science Education. I collected my old committee and Dr. Yager, my chairman, to discuss my thesis. When I left in 1968 I had planned to remain to apply and complete my Doctorate with Dr. Yager. My thesis was to simply study cognitive development as measured by a series of tests over time. A longitudinal study, if you wish. But when I returned in 1977, I was told that a descriptive study no longer met the PhD requirements. I had to conduct a study and show correlation, at minimum, and cause and effect. This is difficult but not impossible. I chose to study the relationship of intellect and moral development. The intellectual part could be measured with simple paper cognitive tests. But moral development would prove to be more difficult. There are many personality measures. Defining moral development would become more challenging. The study group would be entering freshmen over a period of 2-3 years. I elected to study the psychology of the 18-22 students. This would require 32 hours of psychology courses. I accepted a graduate assistant position in science education. In February of 1979, we lost our daughter at birth. It took a couple of months to become functional. I continued to teach, define my study, and work. In October 1977, I left my thesis and teaching assistantship. I took a position at Dakotas Wesleyan University. My job was to provide educational and financial help to low income students. Of course, most everyone in South Dakota lived below the poverty line. I choose to spend time with the Lakota Sioux Indians living nearby on the reservation. I could not believe the poverty of mind and spirit. Native American students were encouraged to come to the university. They would stay on campus for 6-8 weeks before walking home. Each semester the university would collect $6000 in tuition and a similar amount in board and room. After time, the loan debt adds up. But the students always left. The university collected their fees, but few Native American Indians completed their degrees. The mission of the TRIO programs is to maximize graduation. Small universities that have met the needs of the local majority community have great difficulty in serving the needs of nearby minority populations. After two years, my wife and I decided that -40-degree winter temperatures and the politics of a small town university were not for us. We packed our car and moved to Texas. Texas was like a developing country with great oil wealth. Education was not cherished or desired. It was a state requirement to go to school. I joined a secondary school of 4000 students to teach chemistry and physics. The school was new. Parents were well educated and well employed. Benefits were KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 28

good. And China town was up the street. We bought a home. But a few weeks after arriving in Houston, Texas we received a telegram. “Come home, have baby.” In March 1981, our daughter, Erin, came home. It took about 6 months and intervention from our Iowa Senator, Charles Grassley, to obtain a visa and permanent residence for Erin. Molly spent 8 months in Malaysia waiting patiently for the paper work to be completed. After 26 years in teaching and college counseling, I retired in June 2008. Erin completed her college degree in January 2003. We bought a house in Kuala Lumpur in 2006. We go each year for three months. My daughter works throughout the U.S. in clinical research. The U.S. government does not allow permanent residents to stay more than a year outside the country. Since my wife and daughter are permanent residents, we have limited time to stay in Malaysia. But each time we return to Malaysia we see change in living standards and political climate. Everything is more expensive. My wife comes from a nearby town on the island of Borneo from where we both taught. We still meet with students who have graduated and now have children who are in college or working nearby. The country-side in Borneo is beautiful and varied. The young man who stayed with me in Iowa has now retired from Shell. He a resort overlooking the South China sea. Life is good. Since I did not receive my PhD, I pester my daughter to earn hers. She received a master’s degree from George Washington University. Life has had its ups and downs. But in summary life was and is good. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 29

Jim Stroud [email protected] Los Angeles, CA area Home Phone: 818-994-0347 Cell Phone: 818-631-2306 I returned from Korea in August of 1969 and, as planned, started graduate school at the University of Texas--Austin. That did not last long because I soon discovered that I was just not that interested in the history of Mexico any more. So I called Ron Rezac in California, and he said come on out, you can stay with me until you get your bearings. A few days later I was on a very slow bus to Santa Monica, California. It was not hard to find a job in those days, and I ended up teaching Spanish at a local Catholic high school. That experience made me decide to never teach again. In the mean time Ron had entered law school and he urged me to do the same, I resisted the urge because I had never had any interest in the law and did not believe that I was cut out for such a life.. About a year later I was enrolled at Loyola School of Law, and graduated and passed the bar in 1976 Fortunately Ron asked me to join his firm and we practiced together for about 10 years.. Then he, Ron, quit me, saying something about wanting to move out of the decaying city and its traffic and pollution in order to become a gentleman farmer-rancher, which is what he did. So I went out on my own, doing a variety of cases in various areas of the law including immigration, business and eventually personal injury. During that stretch I married and divorced , no children. The practice prospered after a fashion, and I bought a small building , sold it and moved from the down town Los Angeles area to the San Fernando Valley. No more commuting on the freeways was the motivation. In 1991 I married Van T Do and she has somehow managed to put up with me until the present date. In 2009 I retired from full time practice, but from then to now have still been at it on a part time but slowly being phased out but not quite basis. No children, but a wonderful step daughter.. Korea and the Korean experience continue to be a part of my life due to my experience in immigration law and a large number of Korean clients. My meager ability in the Korean language really helped over the years, but I have only been back to visit three times, and two of those were short term business trips. I am quite excited about the reunion and am looking forward to it KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 30

Jo Ann Joseph [email protected] 128 Stonehouse Road Glen Ridge, NJ 07028 Cell phone: 973-568-3772 After college, I worked as a Junior Art Director at a local department store in Wilkes Barre, PA. Then upon moving to NYC in 1968, I worked for a small advertising company but left in 1969 to travel to Europe eventually landing in Lebanon where my dad was born and stayed there for about 5 months.

I returned to NYC in the middle of 1970. I worked for a cosmetics company for the next 5 years and also worked with a rather radical group that I had to leave surreptitiously one fine day. In a sense, my world did not really start until 1982 when I met my husband, Paul. Two years later when my first daughter was born, my life began. Becoming a mother changed me profoundly for the only thing I wanted from then on was to be a good mom. I was a 39 year old first time mother so happy to have a child that I did not work outside the home for the next three years. Then at the age of 43, I gave birth to my second child. I became a baby watcher, filled with wonder at what I was experiencing with my children and fascinated by their growth that was akin to watching the second hand on a clock slowly making its way from one minute mark to the next. I stayed home mostly, but one day when my first born was 3, we were in the park when a woman approached me and asked me if I would like to be a teacher for a group of two year olds. She and some of her friends wanted a preschool experience for their children. I was taken aback because while I had seen her around, I didn’t even know her name and moreover, I wasn’t a teacher. That was the first time I taught. When my second was born, I stopped teaching and stayed home to raise my two girls. But when my second was about to enter kindergarten, I went to get a Masters in Early Childhood Education. I taught preschool first and subsequently became an administrator for preschool centers and an infant toddler center working in both Head Start (preschools) and Early Head Start (infant/toddler). I met my husband, Paul while we were both cast in a Moliere play. Heading that famous old warning to thespian would be’s, we had day jobs and did not quit them. We struggled mightily for the first years of our marriage helped enormously by the fact that in 1968 I found a rent controlled apartment in Greenwich Village and lived there for the next 26 years. That apartment welcomed Maxine Salvin and then Peter Smith when each returned from Korea. So that is my life in a nutshell. Paul and I have been married 32 years. Our older daughter Jena is married to a lovely man who writes his own web comic along with an artist friend of his. Jena works in the alumni office at Columbia. Our daughter Emily is a struggling fine art photographer but earns her real money by working in a photo lab. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 31

For the past 21 years I have worked in Newark New Jersey first as a preschool teacher, then as an administrator and now as an Education Specialist. Ten of those years have been with a Head Start agency where I currently am employed (as of this writing because I cannot decide when to quit). Update: In September of 2016, the outfit I worked for folded up and moved out of town. I worked here and there for months but in January of this year, I started a part time job with an educational research institute as a data collector (observing classrooms). I do wish I were working full time, but perhaps this is best at this stage of my life. I remain a baby watcher, endlessly fascinated by infinitesimal signs of growth in children and I remain filled with a longing to contribute as much as I can to children and families whose lives are compromised in so many ways. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 32

Julie Boden Schmidt [email protected] 681 Arbor Crest Lane Langley, WA 90260 Phone: 607-423-6123

A BRIEF BUT TWISTING BIO FOR JULIE BODEN SCHMIDT (AKA Julie Ann Schmidt, Julie Ann Schneidmiller) • Left Korea in August 1967, telling myself that my mother was ill and needed me. Truth be told – I was too young, too naïve, too small town. • Came back, and within a year was teaching in a private girls’ school (the only non-Catholic in a world full of older women with full habits!) and was married. • Moved on to another school and became the Vice –Principal, a great training ground for my future endeavors. Learned to concentrate on what was important and to be fair. • As women of our generation did, three years after being married, we had our first child – a son, Christopher. 12 days overdue, he set the tone for his life – doing everything on his time schedule. Graduated from the University of Texas and is now a web-based journalist/editor. • Volunteered for Planned Parenthood and changed my career: went back to grad school with a focus on health planning and evaluation; became a PA (women’s health care specialist), headed up Washington State’s Title X Family Planning Program. • During that time, we adopted our youngest son – Joel Suh - who lived with his birth mother near the DMZ for 2 years, then in an orphanage and then with an American foster family in Korea. Now he lives in NYC and works for a health care organization. Fast forward…. • Finally found my true mission – became a CEO of a community health center, a program dedicated to providing a broad range of health care to people who for reasons of income, race/ethnicity, language, etc. would not get adequate care if not for the now 1400 community health centers in the country (couldn’t resist the “elevator speech”). Spent 13 years in Seattle with the health center, another 2 with the health department (not meant to be a public bureaucrat). • Time for another adventure – took on the position of CEO of a struggling rural community health center in Central New York. Nine years later, we were thriving and both sons were living on the East Coast. And I was really tired of six month winters and 100+ inches of snow each year. • Following my stint in New York, I went to work for the National Association of Community Health Centers, where I became head of the Training and Technical Assistance Department for the National Association of Community Health Centers. A great way to end my career – including mentoring some of the most wonderful young leaders. My oldest son has said that I have the strangest idea about retirement -- basically, I continue to work with community health centers but on my own time KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 33

frame. I do board training, strategic planning, and transition planning with them. In between "gigs", I am still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

If I had to choose some highlights… • Being the mother of two wonderful sons. • After 22 years together, finally was able to marry my partner for life three years ago, Vicki (she’s another whole story!). • Having a life filled with family, friends, cats and a dog. • Going back to Korea with Joel and seeing the contrast from when I was there last – loved seeing the elderly man pulling a cart with his body (memories of 1967) while talking on a cell phone! • Having a career where my politics, my passions, my sense of mission, and philosophy all came together – could we all be so fortunate! • Connecting with other trainees after 50 years. • Semi-retired and now living on an island off the coast of Seattle (well, 25 miles north and a 20 minute ferry ride). Think orcas, gray whales, bald eagles, and fresh salmon and crab. Reaction to training: It was a great experience that upon reflection I was completely unprepared for. I think I finally matured in my 30's and should have volunteered then. As a result, memories are flashes of moments but there is some depth of experience missing. Most important/meaningful: The most critical part of training was the development of a spirit to serve. I see my 35 years of work with community health centers, helping people get quality health care, as the result of that. This work has enriched my life greatly. As a compulsive list-maker, I am actually trying to learn to live in the moment and not be so goal oriented. Pretty limited goals: stay healthy; surround myself with people I love; keep giving back to the community. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 34

Impact of training: I don't think we would have adopted our youngest son had it not been the connection to Korea. He truly is my "soul" child (the picture is of us in Korea). Memories: more snapshots: • Playing volleyball • Tremendous electrical and rain storms like I had never experienced • Going to the emergency room with Margo and then viewing a line-up with her • One of the volunteers trying to get a Korean instructor to say "rural route" (after they had laughed at his deep southern accent) • Cockroaches on the floor of the house • A strong sense of camaraderie among all of us • And learning, learning, learning!! KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 35

Ken Nicolay [email protected] 2600 Grand Blvd., Suite 700 Kansas City, MO 64108 Home Phone: 913-236-9253 Cell Phone: 816-769-0977 The Beginning: The small paperback appeared on our desks in the spring of 1960. It carried the title of "When the Sleeping Dragon Wakes", complete with a bright red dragon on the cover. The book included Chinese history and a contemporary look at China under Mao. I only remember two books from junior high, this one and my first year Latin text. Reading this book began my life long love of Chinese history which ultimately led to arriving in Nashville in 1966. Late Winter/Early Spring 1966: I drank in the fantasies created in the early 1960's coverage of the Peace Corps. I wanted the look on my face that I saw on the faces of the Peace Corps volunteers profiled in Life magazine. Big time. By the time I had immersed myself in the mid 1960's undergraduate world of KU, I had completely forgotten about it. The immediate future for me, post graduation, included the military or the military. It is what we did where I grew up, at least for those of us who were unmarried and uninterested in grad school.In 1966 going to Viet Nam or Germany or where ever just wasn't an issue. In early spring I saw an ad in the student paper for an early sign up program focused on Peace Corps programs in Micronesia. I checked on it, but also asked about other early acceptance programs. These included Korea. Bingo. Right next to China with an extensive relationship with imperial China. And , the raging Kennedy fantasies came roaring back. I went down to my draft board to ask about Peace Corps service. They said they would give me a temporary deferment, covering the time overseas. When I returned, I would be expected to complete military service. Done. Next stop Nashville. Nashville: Honestly, it is a blur, a series of unconnected images. Some of the most amazing people my own age that I never could have invented or imagined. A truly miserably hot three story house that, I believe, the powers that were thought would enhance getting us ready to go to Korea. Midnight some sweltering night, the disc jocky said, "It's 90 degrees with 90 % humidity". Then, he played Wild Thing. Drinking beer with Charlie Looney listening to great stories articulated with a soft semi-Cajun accent. We didn't have those in Kansas City. Our trainers discussing community action. What the hell? Wrestling with a truly impossible language. Being present as the Suhs, in whispers, tried to figure out who the KCIA agent (s) was/were who were monitoring the program as part of our staff. What the hell? Being patiently lectured on the evils of Viet Nam adventures as my cousins, fraternity brothers, and high school chums did their service. What the hell? Being an object of wonder and affection by Bill Coleman as one the first Midwesterners he had ever met, really working hard to figure us out. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 36

Hitchhiking the interstate. Sleeping on concrete sidewalk of a closed gas station with Charlie Looney, wending our way to Gatlinberg when the program kicked us out with $11.00 for the weekend. Sleeping on the floor of the storeroom in the Gatlinberg jail. Catching a ride with a bootlegger who had been let out of jail that day. And then it was over. We went home. But, as Carl anticipated, nothing was the same. Steve was gone. Ron was gone. George was gone. Jim was gone. Leslie was gone. Bob was gone. Charlie was gone. Lots of people I had gotten close to were gone. And I had no one I could share the summer with, because no one else had a context for listening. Korea: Just like Nashville, only it smelled like garlic. Well, maybe not just like Nashville, but it did smell like garlic. A little funky in the beginning, especially when they rolled the red carpet up at the airport before we got off. Here's the truth. I considered my service to be a failure. I never mastered Korean. I had continuous health problems. I felt isolated, ineffective, about as far from those brightly scrubbed faces with the adventuresome look in Life magazine as I could be, and generally missing the point. I was relieved when they sent me home with ulcerative colitis, as they diagnosed it in Washington. This was an experience I wanted in my rear view mirror. Fortunately, no one wanted to know about it in normal conversation. Again, no one had a context, and I certainly rarely brought it up. And still. there were the people, both volunteers and Koreans who had become part of my fabric. Personalities I would recall with great affection and deep missing. Events which would never be repeated. Sights which would never be seen again. A woman with bound feet, or used to be, walking into a Chinese restaurant. A Buddhist temple deep in the mountains and deep in snow. Pegal burning in a cup in a Chinese restaurant. Market day with the street closed. Eager students actually looking like they were getting something. Mudangs working hard to rectify something. Love Potion # 9 and makele. Han--il and Mi-hae. These all lived inside me. Years later Steve Moore had the compassion, wisdom, and patience to create a setting to pull all of these things together,, allowing me to reset the images and create a successful Peace Corps experience out the detritus. Life is a funny old thing. The Last 50 Years: They are all about my wife. She rescued me from my China obsession in graduate school. It turns out the world could do without another anthropology PhD specializing in Chinese common law. Of course, when she left for Los Angeles in February of 1973 to go be with her boyfriend, she fully expected I would finish my program at Cornell. Nah. I don't think so. I quit school and went to LA. We were married a couple of years later. In the mean time, I reconnected with Ron, Jim, Han-il, and Mi-hae. Good stuff. In short order, I worked as a city planner and an assistant to a film producer. Five years flew by. And it became time to go home. 1977-present I carved out a career in commercial real estate. I still work at it, but put in a lot fewer hours than I used to. Took up martial arts. Built houses at nights and on the weekends. Began working without a monetary net at 44 with a wife, three sons, and a mortgaged house. Not recommended, but it worked out fine. Got several patents, but have yet to get them to market. Never quit, never quit, never quit. Go to nicgrip.com for the story. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 37

My sons are grown.We have our first grand child. I am in awe of the men they have become and love the women who, like my wife, decided with a little work, they could be okay. We are all still being worked. And very successfully. I still love Kansas City and the Midwest. I run every morning with two hunting dogs in a country area smack in the middle of the city. They are off leash and so am I. Where else could I find that? Steve and Yong Some years back a guy named Steve Moore found me, via the internet. We reconnected. One result was Gayle and I went with Steve and Yong to Korea and Japan. I got to see the Korean miracle. My wife got to walk on the same streets I did 50 years ago. I made peace with the contradictory elements of my relationship with Korea and my Peace Corps experience. The four of us are close now, an extraordinary gift of the internet. The Reunion It is all about Nashville for me. I am so excited people I connected with in 1966 will be available for me to reconnect with. (there is the preposition issue again. Where is David when I need him?) Once we got to Korea we split up with occasional gatherings. Very few honest to goodness group adventures. But Nashville. That was a group experience. And special.

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Laurie Loken Axling [email protected] 11151 Battle Point Drive NE Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 Phone: 206-842-3475 Hello K-2 - The last 50 years summed up briefly is a writers challenge! I would like to share a few stories to enhance this bio, but will save them for our reunion. So here is a quick chronology After leaving Korea I taught English in Japan and left there on a ship bound for Thailand. I then traveled the rest of the way around the world often visiting Peace Corps volunteers along the way. Highlights were Cambodia, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Iran. I was fortunate to stay in Lebanon for a month with a Greek family Leslie and I were friends with in Pusan (love the connections). Before returning home I traveled for a month in Spain with Gary, my future husband. We met the summer before Nashville in an inner city teaching program, and had written many aerogrammes and letters through the years (which we still have). Looking back I feel very fortunate that I taught for 32 years in a community that included a significant Native American population - the Port Gamble S'Kallam Tribe. They celebrate their canoe culture and Northwest traditions. After Korea and traveling I needed a diverse community. Each year I shared a Korea culture unit with them. Gary and I settled on. Bainbridge Island, where I had spent summers with my grandparents and built a log house on an acre near them. We both taught school and with our two boys traveled to almost every state during our summer breaks. We kayaked, skied, backpacked, biked and boated taking advantage of our northwest surroundings. Today we live in the same house, our boys were married in our garden and they live a ferry ride and floating bridge drive away from us. When we retired in 2001 we traveled to China, Tibet, Cambodia (I wanted to show Gary the Ankor Wat I visited in 1968). Before the grandchildren were born we went to Egypt, Jordan, Africa and South America . After they came into our lives we took in tamer locations like Norway, Iceland, Panama Canal and the Baltic . We look forward to Korea and Europe someday! The next ten years we hope to stay healthy enough to take our grandchildren traveling so they can come to know world cultures beyond the sound bytes in the news. Participation in K-2 training, meeting students from all over the USA and instructors from Korea and my volunteer experience in Korea certainly gave me the gift of a world view and the desire and skills to travel beyond the typical tourist trail. When I arrived by train for my teaching assignment in Pusan I surprised my faculty by being SHORT! They had kindly arranged to have a 7 foot long above the floor bed built for the giant American they expected (at the Principals home) Later I pleased them by gaining 40 pounds in 4 months by indulging in every meal they fed me! Thanks for compiling our book Leslie - sorry this is longer than I planned. We are looking forward to catching up with everyone at the reunion and hearing your stories. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 39

Leslie Desmond [email protected] Box 5638 Snowmass Village, CO 81615 Home Phone: 970-923-2394 Cell Phone: 734-395-1954 A brief summary of my life from K-2 to the present, huh? Well, that brings me to this moment, when I’m writing my bio, on 4/20/16. Didn’t I set a deadline of 3/28 for these bios? And I’m happy to say that all other bios were submitted before I began to compile them. So I win the booby prize for the last bio. There’s no society that will have me, given the lateness of my submission. So all the rest of you must feel pretty good! My life since K-2?? I’ll relate this story because it shows some of the politics of the Peace Corps Administration. When we were at Yonsei, I recall asking the PC doctor for birth control pills, because I had been taking them during my senior year in college. He replied “No,” and proceeded to prescribe a double dose of malaria pills which he thought would help my colitis. The double dose did nothing for the stomach, but did cause me to see double for a while. At first, I wasn’t overly worried about the refusal to prescribe contraception, because I had no romantic interests in Korea. But a while later, I was wined and dined by a Greek shipping captain, in port in Pusan for a few days. Unbeknownst to me (fairly naïve in those days), one is quite fertile after taking the pill for a while and then stopping. So you can imagine my dismay when, after just one afternoon, I found myself pregnant. I had heard that the PC forced pregnant female PCVs to have the baby, because, as you may recall, this was before Roe v. Wade. This was unacceptable to me, and so I met with the powers that be, said I disliked the PC and wanted to go home, and found myself on a plane to San Francisco. In October 1967. Luckily, the Bay Area was fairly progressive, and California had just passed a law that allowed legal abortions if the pregnancy threatened the mental health of the mother. After the requisite doctor visits and paperwork, I had the first legal abortion in the Stanford Hospital for psychiatric reasons. As you might imagine, this experience so early in my tour of duty was devastating. I had never failed at anything—school, jobs, extracurricular projects—and here I was, leaving the PC. I got several part- time jobs, lived with my Stanford boyfriend, and got married in June 1968. My husband had been accepted to a summer health care position (through Volunteers in Asia, a Stanford program) in Chung Pyong (rural, small town in central Korea), working at a Maryknoll Clinic there. As a married couple, we spent the summer in Korea, and I felt better about my previous quick departure, since I was able to return to Korea for another three months. It was very interesting, because we were living in a room in a Korean medical clinic (not Maryknoll), which we believe was an illegal abortion operation, because two women died that summer, and we went through the Korean process of mourning, burial, and remembrance of these women by their families and friends. What next? Two years in Marin County, California, where I was teaching elementary school and my husband was going to theological seminary to avoid the draft (he had previously applied to med school and was KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 40

turned down). He then reapplied to medical school, got accepted, and we moved to Cincinnati, where I continued to teach elementary school At the end of five years, we decided the marriage was a mistake, and got divorced. No kids. I then decided if I didn’t become a ski bum at 28, I would never do it. Off to Colorado, where I lived in Crested Butte and Aspen, teaching skiing and doing the requisite five other part-time jobs, until I got a teaching offer in Aspen. I loved teaching first grade, but I had a serious boyfriend who was killed in an auto accident on the way to play in a hockey game in Sun Valley. So much for living in the mountains— that accident made me leave and go back east to grad school. I then attended Harvard to get a master’s degree to become a reading specialist. When I decided that I didn’t want to teach anymore, I got a job at the Harvard Center for Criminal Justice, studying the juvenile justice system in Massachusetts. Then I applied to law school, and moved back to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago. In first-year law school, I met my future husband, Bozo, and we married before our second year, and had Elizabeth (now 34) in October of our third year. After graduation in 1982, Bozo (aka Phil), Elizabeth, and I then moved to Washington DC where Phil clerked on the US Tax Court and I worked for Sidley and Austin, a Chicago firm. After two years, we moved back to Chicago (Evanston) where we both worked for law firms, had our second daughter, Alison, and had fun parenting young ones. In 1998, we moved to Ann Arbor so Phil could take a job as a tax partner of Deloitte & Touche in Detroit. I worked for my Chicago law firm part time, telecommuting from a home office in Ann Arbor to Chicago. After 9/11, the business prospects of commercial real estate were looking fairly dim, and I therefore decided to retire and become a full-time mom, community volunteer, and board member. While in Ann Arbor, I became involved in a commission for land preservation, an organization for homeless families, the Ann Arbor chapter of the Michigan ACLU, a committee supporting the University of Michigan Depression Center, and the Michigan Theater (an art-house cinema in Ann Arbor.) All this volunteer and board work was very interesting, but now I’m attempting to extricate myself from such eleemosynary pursuits and live the decade from 70 to 80 for ME!!! All these years, we had been coming to Snowmass Village (Aspen) for skiing and other vacations, because my parents had moved here from Chicago in 1969. My mother died in 2006, and my father is now living in Arizona in an assisted living facility—he’s 94. We, therefore, have been making the transition to the Rockies, skiing as much as possible, along with hiking, biking, and listening to live music. I have been living full-time in Snowmass for a year or so, and my husband has been working three out of four weeks for KPMG Canada, and spending the fourth in Colorado. We have two daughters, each of whom are married. Elizabeth is married to Nalla (from Senegal), and they have three children, Adama (6), Isabelle (3), and Philip (18 mos.) They live in Ann Arbor close to us. My younger daughter, Alison, is 30, and is married to Constantinos (from Greece). They live in Brooklyn Heights. Alison, an attorney, is clerking for appellate judge Denny Chin on the Second Circuit, and Constantinos, who has been working in private placement, will now be going to attend Wharton for his PhD, in order to be able to be a professor and do research. What were my reactions to K-2 training in Nashville? I found it fascinating to be among so many college seniors, with such various personalities, with so many different backgrounds, all attempting to understand something about this new culture, and trying to learn Korean language. The staff was very dedicated and very skilled—they seemed to love Korea and to be good at conveying that to us. I loved experiencing the South—the hot humid nights with the crickets chirping and the ladybugs flashing, the KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 41

ubiquitous Coke machines, and the grits staring at me in the breakfast line. I loved our “vacation” at the Blue Ridge Assembly, and our hiking/camping trip up Black Mountain. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of my life since K-2? Without a doubt, bearing and raising my two daughters. Nothing can compare to that. I did enjoy thoroughly my work life as an elementary school teacher and then a lawyer. I’ve also enjoyed my not-for-profit activities, learning that there are many in the world far less fortunate than I, and trying to help out where needed. Finally, getting intimate with the Rockies from age 13 through age 70 has been extremely meaningful—the mountains and the nature they provide are magical, and even spiritual, to me. My goals for the next ten years? I want to remain as physically and mentally active as possible. I am doing therapy on two bad knees, and hopefully I’ll be back on my Spinning bike soon. I like hiking, x- country skiing, and biking for exercise. One thing I regret not doing is taking the kids to the National Parks, which I intend to do with them and the grandchildren. We’re going to Grand Canyon National Park in August, and then possibly Glacier next year. I also want to travel internationally, especially to the Himalayas and then to Africa. And lots of reading…. How has participation in K-2 changed my life? I studied in France during my sophomore year in college, and I remember thinking that France and the US were so completely different. When I got to Korea, I realized just how similar the two Western cultures were, compared to thousands year old Korea. One memory is vivid. When I got to Korea, I was fervently against the Viet Nam war, having spent four years in California in the hotbed of radicalism. When I began to share my opinions with Koreans, I noticed extremely puzzled looks on their faces. After a while, I realized that the Koreans were passionately pro the war, after what they had experienced in the Korean war with its invasion of the Communists from the North. This experience, together with other startling differences, made me realize that there are many ways to live a life, and that mine were not always appropriate in this strange country. I think these experiences made me truly understand and appreciate cultural differences—that the world is not black and white but rather an infinite number of shades of grey. Funniest or most interesting memories of K-2? Trying to eat a fried egg, sunny side up, for breakfast with chopsticks. My Korean mother was so pleased to give me a daily American breakfast, which, after about a week, I could finally eat with my chopsticks. Parading across the Ryman Auditorium stage with Maxine Salvin during the broadcast of the Grand Ol’ Opry. The sleepover on the top of Black Mountain. And finally, going on our adventure weekend with Laurie Loken to PoHang, which was a beach town on the East Coast. I couldn’t understand why the moon was rising over the Pacific Ocean—everything set over my Pacific Ocean in California. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 42

Linda Neal [email protected] 7807 Chadwick St. Shawnee Mission KS 66208 Home phone: 913-345-0006 Cell phone: 913-269-7073 nd After knee surgery in ASCOM in Seoul and being returned to USA in early 1969 (and a 2 knee

surgery) I worked in Marketing Research for LA Times, and then Del Mar Woven Woods which moved me from Huntington Beach CA to Chicago; and in direct sales and management for Foster Grant Sunglasses. FG transferred me to Kansas City. I declined a move to Dallas and decided to stay in Kansas City to develop my interest in finance into a career. In 1992 the spirit moved me to follow another dream: law school. Plowed through University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School in 2 ½ years (had to finish before my little grey cells withered away) and had a ready-made clientele in my insurance and securities clients. Although my focus was estate planning, I became a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel of private attorneys willing to represent a defendant on a multiple defendant indictment. Interesting but exhausting work and in 2005 I chose to focus exclusively on estate planning. In 1998 I joined the Board of Directors of the Missouri United Methodist Foundation and in 2003 I offered to assist churches develop planned giving programs and help individuals plan lifetime and estate gifts to enhance the ministries of the United Methodist Church. I love to travel and visited Eastern Europe before the “iron curtain” came down, then New Zealand, Jordan, Turkey, Sicily, England and France; and enjoyed many trips with RoadScholar. In 2014 I was a “Global Volunteer” in Kunming, China for 2 weeks teaching conversational English; and in December 2015 was with Global Volunteers in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba for 2 weeks of English tutoring and community development projects. Left photo is at community project in Cuba; right photo is from th a local event celebrating 100 anniversary of Panama Canal. We Mid-Westerners take every opportunity to party! KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 43

Kayaking is another favorite activity and have paddled in Guatemala, South Carolina, Maine, Northeast Florida, and Northeast Iowa. Salt River in Phoenix is next venue in March, 2015. Oh – have had full replacements on both knees, which is why I can travel and hike and kayak! In 2010 I moved my mother from New Mexico to live with me; she is now in an assisted living facility where she is thrilled to have actual food served to her 3 times a day – my cooking skills were limited to applying heat occasionally to frozen things, beer, humus, olives and PB&J. I have 2 high- maintenance cats (a Bengal male and calico female) and a ranch-style home in a wonderful neighborhood: the Canterbury/Chadwick Winos meet monthly at different homes to schmooze and compare success and grief with our “mid-century modern homes” designed for and transplanted from California. th My 50 Reunion at Grinnell College is looming and with 2 others am involved with Class Fund Development and Reunion Planning. a. What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc. I thought training in summer of junior year a good idea for a culture and language as different as Korean especially since Peace Corps was still a new program; allowed a very diverse group to “bond” and work toward a common goal. I was proud of the Peace Corps and eager to be part of it, given the spectre of a major war in the Asia. b. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? I love the opportunity to use my legal training to help create support for philanthropy by working with individuals to develop estate plans that will provide support for programs for childrens’ programs, music education, and scholarships for college c. What are your goals for the next ten years? I hope to continue to be active in my community and to travel where I can trade my main skill – native English speaker – for an opportunity to live with people of other countries and work with them to create solutions to their life challenges. d. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? After living essentially alone in Kyung Ju, and not having thrown anyone off a bridge, I knew I could live anywhere (even Chicago) and if not thrive at least survive with some measure of success as long as I needed. e. What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? I still cannot believe that every morning for several winter weeks I boiled water for a bucket bath, with water applied under my bathrobe; or in the summer qued up for 2 buckets of water for nightly “bath” behind a sheet hung over a line; went weekly to a bath house where the ladies ohhed and ahhed over my strange body. One weekend I took the hopsung to a remote Buddhist monastery in the northeast and was walking in the garden when a very old woman attendant whispered “are you American?” She shared that she was in the convent at Clarke College in Davenport, Iowa in the ‘20’s and fondly remembered how kind Americans had been to her. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 44

Lynn Harmon e-mail: [email protected] 142 SE 46th Dr. Gresham, OR 97080 Phone: 503 912 3111 After graduating from OSU in '67 I volunteered for the draft to be a medic in Viet Nam. A fluke incident the day before my induction caused me to flunk the physical so I went to grad school at the Univ of Washington where I got an MA in Russian Studies intending to go into the Foreign Service. While waiting for an opening I got into computers and instead spent most of my life as a programmer/analyst with frequent trips to our plants in the South. After retiring from data processing I spent another decade as a physical theapist assistant in thirty plus skilled nursing facilities. I have been married for 47 years, have two sons, one grandson and have spent a great deal of my spare time over the years as a runner and coaching runners. a. What were your reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville, such as living in the South, working with a group of like-minded college seniors, entering into government service, etc. The K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville was a defining moment in my life. The trip to Nashville was my first airplane ride and my first time out of the West. I had no idea that I would be in and out of the South countless times since. The group (trainees, instructors and staff) was the single best group of people I have been around in my life and there is no close second. Being deselected on the last day of training was a real gut punch that has haunted me every since. b. What is the most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? Knowing that I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers. c. What are your goals for the next ten years? The same goal I had in the summer of '66 - to give back to the community. d. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? The K2 training established the absolutes of my life that everything before or since is measured. e. What are the funniest or most interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? The group trip to the Ryman Auditorium on a sweltering Summer evening and giving the bicycle I had bought for $15 my first week in Nashville, and has used to bike around Nashville, to a very surprised neighborhood kid playing street ball on 15th Avenue on our last day of training. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 45

Lynn Meissen [email protected] After trying CA civil service for a year (boring) I moved to DC. My boyfriend and I took a trip to Panama, signed on as crew on a sailboat returning to Canada and had a great time sailing from Panama, Galapagos, Marquesas, Hawaii. We married and he went to work for AID which sent to Guatemala where we were lucky to stay for 8 years. Not liking the wifely role, I enrolled in nursing school there and we built a 43 foot sailboat, Guayacan. When the boat was finished and the job had lost its appeal, we moved aboard, did the final preparations like stepping the mast and sailed back to the US. A few years in Florida, then Baltimore, and we were set to make the trip appropriate for the boat. TransAtlantic. For the next fifteen months we visited ports in the UK, France, Portugal, Spain, and various islands in the Atlantic. When the money was exhausted we had to return to the US and go back to work. I am still aboard the same boat though now single, living in Morro Bay California. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 46

Mary Trude Lindstrom [email protected] 4206 NE 133rd Ave. Portland OR 97230 Home phone: 503-253-5912 Confession—A friend suggested we take the Peace Corps test to “see if we could get in.” He was told to come back the next year, being a sophomore, but I took the test, and received the airline ticket to Nashville. While I learned a lot—both from teachers and from the rest of you, I felt out of my depth most of the time. I was younger than almost everyone else and had lived in laid-back southern California with little exposure to travel or investment in the causes of the time. So it was a crash course, and a little over a year later, I found myself living with a family in Pusan and expected to teach 60 matching Korean junior high girls per class. Most of my life before and since has been “going with the flow,” but I knew I needed to face up to the fact that I didn’t belong where the flow took me this time, and I asked to go home. Having no other plans, a neighbor found me a job as a teacher’s aide (!) with 9 children in a joint project with UCLA that was one of the early experiments with special ed. I stayed there 6 months, and then moved to Seattle. I proofread and wrote indexes for a publisher of city codes for three years, and along the way found my way back to my Christian faith, attended a local church and ultimately married Richard Lindstrom, the young pastor, in 1970. He had attended Bible school in Portland, but dreamed of attending seminary in Deerfield Illinois. After our first son Tim was born in 1974, we undertook that three-year adventure and also had our second son, Andy. Richard had had experience with an organization called Village Missions that helps support pastoral leadership for mostly rural churches (although some have become suburban over time), so we moved next to Lenwood, California, on route 66 west of Barstow. We were on a 7-year cycle, so we moved next to Sauvie Island, an oasis within the Portland OR city limits. After 7 years there, Tim had just graduated from high school and Andy was just beginning. I once again interrupted the flow, unready to start over at another church. We moved to NE Portland where we still live, and Richard went back to grad school for a second M.A., this time in Counseling. I went to work for what was then First Interstate Bank and worked behind the scenes in deposit fraud detection. Twenty years to the day, I retired in November, 2012. Andy married his best friend Desiree in 2007, and they have our two grandsons, Ezra who is 7, and Levi who turned 4 this past week. Tim finally found his love, Kari, and they married just over 3 years ago…both were 41 and neither had been married before. We have been very blessed by both our daughters-in-law. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 47

In 2010, Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. So far, he has managed quite well, but acknowledges that things are getting harder and everyday tasks become more stressful. Stress is the enemy. So adapting to the continual changes is the main goal for future years and seeking as rich a life as we can manage. We have enjoyed several cruises and hope to continue, although probably not with the stress of cross-country flights any more. Although my K2 experience was limited, it had a significant impact. I learned so much in Nashville— not just what I was supposed to, but just listening to the other trainees and their experiences so far removed from my own. I think Nashville stretched me more than anything. And the summer in- country, including the trip to Panmunjom... At “my” junior high school, the students made anti- Communist posters, and the one that sticks with me showed a huge tarantula covering N Korea and looking threateningly at the map of the south. Interesting times now. There are still a few phrases that stick with me, and our kids grew up knowing “kapshida.” Although I would love to be part of the group again, Nashville is not going to work for us. Hope you all have a great time. I know you will, and I’ll look forward to hearing reports. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 48

Mike Aemmer [email protected] 5660 Finch Drive Longview, WA 98632 Home phone: 360.425.8928 Cell phone: 360.751.4404 Cell Taught English as a second language in Yosu for about 18 months. (I was at the boys middle/high school. Sarah Allen was at the girls). Then 6 months on Cheju island. Returned home. Taught for another 32 years before retiring at 58. (There was a bit of teacher union and administrative experience along the way. Neither were as purposeful nor enjoyable for me as teaching). Have done enough traveling. Took my bride to Korea (and other Asian countries) back in the days (1975) when Korea still resembled the

Korea that I had remembered. Favorite place now, besides home, maybe New York City. Been to Mexico more times than I needed. Never been to Europe. Most important/meaningful, of course, has been 42 years of marriage to Judy, a married son, a married daughter, and four awesome little grandchildren. After I retired, I decided it was time to finally explore a couple of “aspects” I'd been content to stave off for most of my life: relationships in general and more specifically my relationship with God. I found that volunteering for many different organizations* provided me ample opportunities to be challenged and to mature in those couple of areas. *(Volunteering, for example, with Make-A-Wish, in a local emergency room, for the DAV transporting veterans to and from a couple of out of town VA hospitals, counseling adults as part of a Lay Counseling Program, and mentoring young people through the WA State Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration). I enjoy three early mornings every week at Starbucks with different groups of individuals. We strive to maintain a reasonable perspective on “the meaning of life” and attempt to proactively solve the problems of the world through the eyes of mature and wise “men of age”. Reading found me. I have come to enjoy considering questions now that lead me to seek productive answers in place of unanswerable questions that I had probably spent too much time on earlier in life ~ questions that tended to lead me to cynicism and sometimes simple futility. I have enjoyed “messing around” in my yard for a long time. As a biology teacher, I became even more under the spell of “life” in all of its amazing diverse natural expressions. I still very much appreciate the mysteries and the majesty of nature that comprise each of the four seasons in the Pacific Northwest 4a. Good question. Loved the bugs in the South ~ especially the cicadas, fireflies, and big beetles! Probably all of the aspects of the Nashville training were fun for me. I began to realize, at just the right time and place in my life, that I could choose to “plug in” at an international, national, or local level... KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 49

My choice would determine the trajectory for the rest of my adult life. One level wouldn't be “better” than another. I had to choose the course that I thought was right for me. I did. It was a a wonderful time and a wonderful experience. 4c. The next 10 years: my seventies (shudder)? My wife has been struggling with depression and anxiety for some time. The dust is now hitting the fan and the next 10 years may center on bringing this show to an end. We'll see, probably one day at a time – at least for the near future. 4d. The K2 training reinforced the need within me to seriously consider the concepts of accountability and responsibility that come with transitioning from kid to adult. More than “influencing” or “changing” my life, I believe that K2 program was, at least for me, what it needed to be when I needed it. I figured it was up to me to determine what I wanted to make of it. It all led to an amazing two years in Korea and my preparing a foundation on which I could confidently continue to build the adulthood I was ready to embrace. 4e. I wish that I could say that the funniest and most interesting memories of Nashville were the human encounters throughout the training experience. Having revealed above my latent immaturity regarding what I now consider to be my “purpose in life”; however, I've got to admit that, at the time, it was those damn bugs that really grabbed my attention! Jeez, they were cool!!! I won't be in L.A. This April. I have mixed feelings about my decision, but I hope those of you who do attend have a blast! It has been fun messaging some of you and following the chatter. My thanks to those of you who have made a significant effort to allow us to reconnect. I'm sure there are a few individuals who have wanted to respond more fully, but life is what it is. We're all old enough to understand more now than we were able to 50 years ago how it works. Blessings to all of you. Each of you are held in my highest esteem. I am very grateful that you became part of my life. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 50

Peggy I Perry (Turner) [email protected] | 19617 Hollyhills Dr NE Bothell WA 98011 Home phone: 425-485-0517 Cell phone: 425-219-0691 Thanksgiving, 1968, home from Korea 1969 Univ. of Wash., teaching certificate(never taught) 1970 Married Bill Perry 1970-1978 Frederick & Nelson, store detective 1974 Elsbeth born, now lives in Portland 1978 Bookkeeping course 1979-1997 Safeway Manufact Div, Bread Plant, production control supervisor 1979-1992 My mother lived in cottage behind the house I grew up in. 1980 Divorced 1997-1999 Traveled to other Safeway plants around the country training employees on computer system that included A/P, A/R, costing, inventory control, forecasting, pricing, production reporting stats, etc. 2009-2010 Year and a half in Lindsay, CA, settling cousin's estate (ask me about this) 1983 Trip to Israel & Egypt with layovers in Athens and Copenhagen w/Elsbeth/mother. 1997 Trip to England w/ traveling friend 2001 Trip to England & Wales w/two cousins and same friend. 2007 Cruise on Med. to Italy, Greece and Turkey w/same friend 1950-present Rose Hill Presbyterian Church--choir, bell choir, bell quartet & many ministries over the years. 1990-present Small book club sampling every ethnic food we could find 1970-present long friendship with my mother-in-law who at 94 is still doing the New York Times crossword puzzle Present----Renewed friendship with Elsbeth's father after many decades of silence. "Life after Korea" for me has to start with "life leaving Korea." After seeing a PC doctor, a US Army doctor and a Korean doctor while stranded on the Island of Dok Chok to no avail, I finally decided to go home. To be fair I have to add that it was two months and several American doctors later ( one suggested that I was "mental") before they discovered I had appendicitis but without the usual symptoms. I had my final attack in Korea the night before I flew out of the country and have almost no memory of it except an ambulance ride to the hospital where they gave me a shot for pain. I mainly remember staring down at the beautiful green rice paddies from the plane with tears. I had planned on a three day layover in Japan but spent the whole time in bed until finally the poor maid became worried and sent the KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 51

hotel manager to check on me. This is all to say that leaving Korea was heart-wrenching for me and to say how glad I am to be part of this coming event. Nashville was almost as much a foreign country to me as Korea was. I remember one of our members being attacked in the girls dorm and the police's determined effort to blame the African American student among us. I can't remember his name right now. They took each one of us who lived on that floor to the police station and into separate little rooms alone and tried to get us to implicate him. I saw a side of the police I'd not seen before. I remember being a bit dismayed when they placed us incognito in that education/work-preparedness sort of place where we were supposed to pose as job seekers that could barely spell and try to make friends. That feeling grew when there was a knife fight in the hallway between classes. I dreaded how they would feel and act if they caught us. I'm not much of an actor. I also remember sleeping on the floor in that empty house on the edge of campus with nothing but an unlocked screen door even though there had been a murder just a few doors down. It was just so hot. I remember the Suh's and their baby and all the Koreans who labored hard to help us learn the language. I didn't know until now that he was killed. Also, the young couple who had returned from Peace Corps in Iran. They spoke of the advancement of women there, so different after the fall of the Shah. I especially enjoyed being with kids from all around the country, especially those from the east coast, you all seemed so exotic to me. The most memorable person to me was George Worth. I think PC was lucky to find such a man since Korea was not an easy study and I imagine there weren't too many around who had his depth of knowledge of the land and it's people. I loved the Korean food, and the culture classes, not so much the language classes, don't remember Gerd at all, but did learn my fricatives! Signs on the sidewalk in downtown Nashville, "No Spitting." An Irish ? restaurant that served "steak fries," five tender little steaks on one plate smothered with delicious skinny fries, shared and enjoyed with plenty of beer. Vanderbilt Library where the clerk tried to charge me for breaking the binding of a real old book on Korea after she broke it herself right in front of me. The time it took to buy one pack of gum. Glacial. Road trip to North Carolina. Sleeping too close to the garbage cans which attracted bears in the night. The restaurant on Hwy 167 that served a huge southern meal family style for only $1.67. Yum. Sleeping at the base of a fire lookout station in the Smoky Mountains, rising before dawn and seeing the reason for their name. Staying at a huge plantation style hotel which woke us up with a loud recording of "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning" at 6:30AM. The summer in Seoul at Yonsei University's Korean Language Institute is marked by two main memories--the sound of guitars playing Dylan songs outside on the hot nights (i.e., every night!) and the spread of rich pastries that appeared like clockwork every day. The most interesting thing that happened to me in Seoul was meeting by accident a GI on the street on my way to the PC office about a year later. We stopped to talk as foreigners do and found we were both from suburbs of Seattle. When I told him my name he said, "I know you." I said, "Oh sure." It turned out we did know each other by name but had never met. I couldn't believe that in a city of millions we could have met someone from half way around the world. Inchon was a village of 400,000 with few houses over two stories, few paved roads except near the train station. I taught in a huge Catholic girls school, Pangmun Girls Junior Senior High School. Bob Bercaw taught in the boys Catholic school. We both were welcome in each others families who didn't seem to mind that we hung out together a lot. The first year I had six seventh grade classes and six eighth grade classes of 60 students each. Teaching conversational English was hard with those numbers but the principal was adamant that all should have equal access to me. Each fall I lost my voice for a whole week when the sky turned yellow from the dust storms off the Gobi Desert. The KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 52

second year I convinced the principal to let me lead an English club of the top seniors before school started. My students tried to call me "Miss Turner" but it came out sounding something like "Miss Chunya" which sounded a lot like their word for virgin and it always brought out some giggles. Most of them were very sweet and respectful. Before and after school and during breaks the girls would join hands in groups of four or five and polish the hardwood halls rhythmically with their stocking feet to the sound of classical music blaring over the loudspeakers. The school was very tough on them but it was trying its best. I see that clearly now but then I was very critical and shocked at some of the callousness I observed. The teacher assigned to me, Mr. Kwak, spoke very good English and shocked me one day by inviting me to his wedding. I felt honored to be asked and they were honored to have a foreigner there and our school principal officiated. I also had a close friendship with a young nun who taught there. She returned to the convent in Seoul where she died from TB. Her sister was also a teacher at PangMun and we, too, became friends. Most of my closest friends were those who could speak English. This was to their benefit in the long run, as their spoken English improved. I was so impressed with their desire to learn. I admired their commitment to equal opportunity though it was hard to take sometimes. Some of the classrooms had broken or missing windows but no one was allowed to wear gloves in the classroom, including teachers, because not everyone could afford gloves. That thinking applied in the street, too. It was considered bad manners to eat on the street even though there were many street vendors. Same thing--not everyone could afford enough to eat. In the summer the diocese decided to sponsor a month long English language camp on Dok Chok Do, an island southwest of Inchon. Several PCVs from around the country joined us there. It was very isolated with no dock and we had to literally walk the plank balanced on some uneven boulders when we got there while someone tossed our bags on shore. It had a huge church and small modern hospital, thankfully, since I was sick there again and spent a couple of days in bed with an IV. The food was so- so and we were often scrounging eggs from the villagers until we were told we had caused a shortage of eggs. Then we started on fresh frog legs which we paid the little local boys to catch for us, skin, clean and cook on a stick over a few burning twigs. We held English classes, but also played basketball and Twister (in English), had an art contest and just hung out with them. Most of them (7th and 8th grade boys) had probably never left home or had any sort of a vacation before this. While we were there the honey bucket men were on strike. It was hard not to laugh about this but things got so bad that there were maggots crawling out of the holes and onto the wooden shoes we had to wear in there. I will never forget it. The biggest impact on me was the unprecedented look into Korean family life at this time. Family became more important to me than ever before. I believe it is the key to their miraculous recovery. My family had two parts. The older group consisted of a mother, a grandmother and four adult children. One was a senior in high school with excellent English, one was with the ROK fighting with the Americans in Viet Nam, one was a bank teller, and the 4th (my age) could not hear or speak. While I was there he graduated from high school and was starting to train as a tailor. Their father was a teacher about half hour north of Inchon and just happened to be on the wrong side of the line when the DMZ was laid down. They never saw him again. All of these young people still lived at home and turned over their wages to their mother. Jung Ho, my best friend there and senior at my school graduated and was heading to college. Another part of the family included a young couple with three little ones (one of whom was born when I was there. All five slept in a little room we would call a closet. Then there was a country cousin (young teen) who had come to the city to help in the kitchen, another halmoni and me. All fourteen of us lived KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 53

in four rooms not counting the kitchen and one of those rooms belonged to me. This was accomplished fairly peaceably and with no sense of being crowded. While I was there the oldest brother fell off a four story building under construction and landed on his back. He survived that without broken bones but was in the hospital a very long time. Halmoni moved into the hospital to care for him, taking along her ibol and yo, each day coming back to the house for food for them both. There was medical care but not patient care available and that was how families dealt with it. They worked so hard and stuck together. I hated to leave them. Jung Ho and I corresponded at least until Elsbeth was born. I could go on and on but ... Around the time I was divorced my mother became a widow. She moved in with Els and I and lived in her own little cottage about ten feet behind the house I had grown up in in the woods on Rose Hill, a neighborhood of Kirkland, WA., now a few miles from Microsoft, Nintendo, Google, the old Costco headquarters, etc. Elsbeth was the envy of all her friends having a granny right on her doorstep. This lasted for 13 years until my mother moved into a retirement home and Els was off to college. The highlight of this time was the trip the three of us took to Israel and Egypt. After living there for 56 years I sold the property and moved about 6 miles north to Bothell. I thought all my adventures were over but here comes another one. Looking forward to meeting you again. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 54

Ron Rezac [email protected] 37990 E Kings Canyon Road, Dunlap, CA 93621 Home phone: 559 338-2711 Cell phone: 559 824-7271 (NOTE - my cell phone lives in my truck and is rarely on) Peace Corps Assignment: Secheon - a small village in Choong Chung Nam Do. 2. Life After Korea: After a year in Korea I was medically evacuated to Bethesda Naval Hospital for a malady of undetermined etiology. I was at Bethesda for a month, then an out-patient for a few weeks. I was told I could not return to Korea but I lobbied the PC office staff in D.C. and they finally cut me a ticket back to Korea. I was permitted to stay in Korea if I agreed to be reassigned to Seoul near medical care. I managed to remain for the second year but when my malady became a bit unmanageable I was told I had to go directly home again. That was a disappointment as I wanted to take a longer way home Back in Nebraska (God's Country to the uninformed), expecting to be drafted within weeks, I took a road trip to California, and while there I was drafted, took the physical in L.A. and passed. My hope was to go back to Korea in the Army. However, after reviewing my Bethesda and Seoul Military Hospital records, the Army did not want me - a correct decision as my medical issues continued for years - including further hospitalizations. Now, all is Okay, with rare and mild reoccurrences. With my army "plans" now gone, I was in California with no plans, without much money, and still with medical issues. I got on at the L. A. County Probation Department, on the 10 PM to 6 AM shift with Mondays and Tuesdays off, so I was sort of out of sync with the world, though living near the beach in Santa Monica was nice. Still, I needed a plan. I decided on Law School. Jim Stroud came to California. We lived together there, Jim then got on at the Probation Department, and then also went to law school. I declined a few law firm interviews and instead, in 1974, Jim and I partnered in a law office in Los Angeles, with a significant Korean client base. In 1979 I married Patty. With a first daughter in 1981 and a second in 1983, Patty and I wanted to have more time for family, and wanted to raise our kids outside of Los Angeles, so in 1986 we moved to a 90 acre "ranch" in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 50 miles east of Fresno. I planned to open a law office in the hills, but decided the hill community was too small to support that. So, for about 18 months we remained unemployed, and simply enjoyed spending time with the kids and fixing up the property. Next, the Fresno County Counsel hired me to handle three jury trials. After those trials, they hired me full time. Later I accepted an offer from the Tulare County Counsel's office, eventually becoming Chief Deputy heading a litigation team, which also handled personnel matters. After 22 years, I retired in 2008. I was offered part time employment and told I could work from home but I declined. I felt like I had to close that chapter completely in order to start another. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 55

We have enjoyed a very private and bucolic lifestyle for the past 32 years on our "ranch", tackling one project after another. It has been at times very hard and extremely challenging, but, hey, everyone needs a hobby. The good news is that we live in a park, the bad news is that we are the groundskeepers. We go to town about every two weeks to remind ourselves how much we don't like to go to town. The Internet is a sufficient tether to civilization most of the time. Town trips usually involve getting groceries or supplies for some ranch project, a dinner with friends, a concert, or other entertainment. Here we spend time gardening, landscaping, biking, reading, writing, cooking, (I took an Italian Cooking class but remain a novice), playing pickle ball, taking care of our animals, and on ranch related projects of which there are always too many to ever finish - there is always a young bull to castrate, or a tree to prune, or some boulders to move into a landscaping project. Patty continues to plant flowers everywhere - I am told I am an enabler as I continue to buy her pots. I stopped planting trees after putting in well over 120 near the house, to add to the thousands elsewhere - I am not certain why I felt a need to do that. A "good day" is when I get some quality "seat time" on my tractor, or when I make my wife laugh. A "great day" is when I do both and there are many great days. Although I am totally content to stay at home and talk to the cows and lizards, Patty likes to travel a bit. Because we live in central California, we can easily pop into LA or San Francisco, or San Diego, and as we are close to Yosemite and only 15 miles from Kings Canyon National Park we have opportunities for great hiking and biking. We do less of that now that we are older, but we still manage to exercise daily. The ranch chores remind us we are getting older but also serve to keep us young. Spending time with family is always a priority, and with two grand daughters in Carlsbad, California, we now go there at least once a month. Also important - a couple of years ago I participated in a ten day Vipassana meditation retreat which continues to have a significant influence on how I see and value things and introduced me to a rather meditative life style. 4. a. Reactions to K2 Peace Corps training in Nashville: While I had previously taken road trips of cultural significance, e.g., to adjacent states where beer could be had at age 18, and to the Mardi Gras, this was my first protracted exposure to the South and to persons with such an array of interests and backgrounds. Most were sane, and meshing all that was fascinating. By circumstance, intent, or necessity, we became closer to some than to others, but we all learned to share a love of phonetics. Being a shy kid from Nebraska, and only knowing Nebraskans, I imagine all of this had more of an impact on me than on others. Oh, and I am no longer shy. Regarding government service: I had no plan to join the PC. It just happened. I took a study break from the U of N library one evening and stopped at a PC booth in the student union to look at photos. I was encouraged to sign up for a meeting. I did so but did not attend. They called me and I was rescheduled. I was again in the student union so attended. I don't recall signing up to volunteer, but must have. Anyway, I forgot all about it until I received a telegram invitation to join the training in Nashville for an assignment in Korea. What? I went to the library to read about Korea, gave up a great Summer job, took my first plane trip and discovered humidity. If I had not taken that study break that night - likely no Peace Corps for me. 4. b. The most important/meaningful aspect of your life since K2 training/PC Korea? Such an easy question - family. Someone once asked me if I would change anything in my past. Perhaps, but I would not change anything if it meant I would not be who I am, where I am, and with the family we are. Happiness is a choice, I really believe that, but choosing to be happy has been easy given KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 56

the people who have come into my life - my wife, our daughters Tiana and Afton, the grand daughters and the terrific guys our daughters brought into the family - Eddie and Travis. It remains a great ride. 4. c. What are your goals for the next ten years? To stay here - I love where we are - the mountains. It would be challenging for me to live in town - with neighbors. Hopefully we can have another 5 or 10 years here. When we moved here 32 years ago it was quite a bit easier to maintain everything - fences, landscaping, trees, animals, and more. But now I am 74. I "think" I can still lasso, throw down and castrate a young bull but I no longer want to. I suppose our health and where our daughters live will determine where we go next. Hopefully, near a bike path. So far, we have resisted our daughter's entreaties to leave the ranch and move to Carlsbad. I am not sure I could live around people full time, but as we get older I suppose that may be a choice we have to make. And the grand daughters are a huge draw. Other goals? Well, I hope to remain curious about everything, and every day to read, write, learn, meditate, and follow the sage advice of Gandhi who said "Live as if you were going to die tomorrow and learn as if you were going to live forever." Or, as was said of Jefferson, something like "if full occupation of mind, heart and hand is happiness, then surely he is happy." So, I hope to be fully occupied - it's good for the mood - and for me, essential. When I was asked what I would do the first day of my retirement I said I would learn to yodel and get some quality seat time on my tractor - I can't yodel but I still get a lot of seat time on my tractor. So, all that, spending time with family, and a bit of travel is how we hope to spend the next years. 4. d. How has participation in K2 training/PC Korea influenced/changed your life? First, I would not have received all these emails from all of you - several hundred already and more every day. So, there's that. Next, none of us would be who we are, or perhaps who we are with, or where we are if we had not gone to Korea. The dots can all be connected. So, there's also that. And we all know that our world view has been influenced by our Peace Corps experiences in Korea. I think, no exceptions to that. Beyond that, for me, and for Jim Stroud, becoming connected in the K2 training and Korea, led to friendship, then living together, then law school together, then a law partnership with a plan to serve the Korean population in Los Angeles. If I had gone to law school without going to Korea, it is almost certain that I would have accepted employment with one of the law firms which had contacted me, rather than going into private practice, and all that flowed from that would have changed my life immensely. Tangibles, intangibles. 4. e. Interesting memories of K2 training/PC Korea? Where to start? Way too many to relate, but here are a few: • The bike trip down the coast with Jim Stroud and George Delaney - perhaps the best memory of all. (Samchok to Pohang I think) • My amazing malady - and medical evacuation, which prompted Ken Nicolay to call me the amazing plastic man. • The "get-lost" weekend gifted to us shortly after we went to Korea. I took a train to Sokcho (?), met a guy on the beach who was a descendent of an extremely renowned 16th Century Korean poet - Confucian scholar Yi I (aka Yul Gok). I was invited to stay overnight at Yi I's birthplace - an ancient KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 57

and beautiful home - over 500 years old and I believe near Sokcho. I remember telling the Suhs about this and how excited they were. Later I learned he was on the 5,000 won note. • Freezing in a third class train car with no windows, for I think 7+ hours, in mid Winter, from Seoul to So Cheon. I am certain that no one has ever been that cold and lived. • The friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Suh, and all the times spent at their house in Seoul. • A blur of makkoli gatherings with teachers where I was, you were, all of us were, the honored guests thus obligating us to receive all the emptied bowls, have them filled, and quickly empty them again so we could return all the again empty bowls to the other guests, so the ritual could start all over. And how many times, how many times... • Bathing from a bucket with water drawn with a rope from a deep well - all year long. When it was cold you could hardly stand the cold water, when it was warm there were mosquitoes - but it all became so normal. • Every month or so traveling by bus from Secheon (where there were no public baths) to JangHang, then taking a ferry to Kunsun, to a public bath, and then traveling all the way back. In the Summer the dusty roads sort of defeated the purpose of the trip. • The friendly rats in the three sided outhouse - so familiar I gave them names, Park, Lee and Kim. Park had half a tail. • The time curfew was near, I was in downtown Seoul, and found I had no money to take the bus (back to the Suhs) and had to beg bus fare from a stranger. • The time I was caught out after curfew and had to sit in a police station for a few hours - entertaining the officers with my "perfect" Korean, and laughing at stories I did not understand. I think Jim was with me then. • The rural bus trips where the bus (laden with travelers, wares, chickens and goats) could not make it up the hills, so the passengers (those without animals in their care) had to all exit and push the bus the rest of the way up the hill - so we could coast or drive to the next big hill and do it all over again. • The mountain bus trips where the Korean bus drivers would be more than half asleep and still driving on curvy roads. The more their eyes were closed the more mine were wide open. • The Pueblo incident, and the team of infiltrating North Koreans that kept us isolated somewhere outside of Seoul (during a meeting of some sort) while they tried to find the infiltrators. • A variety of dysenteries. How many were there? I had at least two. Amoebic and bacillary. • Skinny dipping in a small rice field pond with my fellow tae kwon do students very late at night after class. • How poorly my voice sounded and how well every Korean could sing. • Sitting on elevated platforms in the country side in strawberry or tomato fields, eating, drinking, talking. • Honey buckets. • Sea weed soup three times a day, every day. . . who knew there were so many different kinds of sea weed soup. • The clanging sounds of the junk-cart-man's scissors calling kids to bring junk in exchange for a hunk of taffy. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 58

• The eerie whistle of the blind masseurs as they wondered through the streets at night. • The haircuts and razor shaves. • How important it was to know - with a narrow margin of error - where all the available bathrooms were in downtown Seoul. • How, for a year or so after I returned to the states, I continued to follow the Korean custom of handing things to people with two hands, or with one hand coupled with a second hand gesture. • Saving up for a night at the O.B. Bear for any time we could get to Seoul - chicken and beer never tasted better - never. I recall having to tear the whole roasted chickens apart with your hands and dipping the meat in salt. • Being so far away and hearing about the assassinations of B. Kennedy and MLK. • Discovering that the roasted "nuts" I used to buy from street vendors were really bugs. • The one and only time I was homesick - walking in Seoul Christmas eve with snow falling and hearing Christmas songs playing from a shop. • The students. I can still recall many faces. • Hiking alone up to and inside of the volcano on Cheju do and becoming totally lost when the fog moved in. Night was coming, it was cold, I had only a light jacket, I was the only person in the crater, and I was not sure I would get down and out. Hours later, stumbling around, following a ravine, I found a path, then came across an old man who directed me to a road and I got back. Very frightening. By the way, it was hours after that that my malady started - while on a train from Mokpo to Taejun. • The times I wanted to walk alone in the hills around my village - I would start out alone but within minutes would be joined - every time - by others - usually an instant parade. I could list so many more but will stop here.

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Sandra Labes Gaines (aka Cassandra) [email protected] 2815 Floral Road NW Albuquerque, NM 87104 Home phone: 505-243-1945 Cell phone: 505-918-6292 I have not accomplished all the things that I intended, but I have had a life rich in detours and experiences and have met and made friends with so many incredible people. I always imagined that I would stay close to my large California family, but never lived near them. I really wanted a home, but have ended up a gypsy, moving too many times to count and never feeling anyplace was home. It all started at the end of my senior year. Carl Stephani was at UC Berkeley that year. His childhood friend and room mate went to work at the Peace Corps recruiting office in San Francisco before I graduated. One day, he called me to say that English teaching was a waste of time and that the first PC Korea public health group would begin training in September and that he could get me into it. So, I transferred to Korea 4, which trained at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. I acquired the nickname “Cassandra”, a name I had loved from reading Greek plays (more on the nickname later). Unfortunately, I got deselected from K4 at the end of training. By early 1968, I was teaching Head Start on the Navajo reservation. I am still good friends with Rose Laughter and her family who live in Shonto. She was one of my teacher’s aides. Saving my money carefully, I was able to go to Korea on my own and found a job teaching at the soon- to-open English Language Institute at Yonsei University in Seoul. Seoul was never my favorite place in Korea; I still prefer the rural areas. I was getting close to Sandy Gaines, a K4 who was living in the moutains south of Taegu. He and I met up often and travelled to many Buddhist temples, often in out of the way places. Eventually he moved to Seoul and in October 1969 we married at a small Buddhist temple near Kyungju (Gyeongju now) that was owned by a priest who was the uncle of Chang Yonhong, a woman who worked for Peace Corps in Taegu and later in Seoul. Leaving Korea in December at the end of his service, we travelled the slow, cheap way through Asia. Highlights were Cambodia, Nepal, India, Afghanistan. By bus and train we reached Europe and flew to New York. Culture shock. The name issue came up immediately. Two Sandy’s did not work as we visited family and friends. Sandy (Sanford, really) got to keep that nickname. So, whenever you see “Sandy”, I am writing about my husband. I became Cassandra. Thank goodness I had not gotten one of the other K4 nicknames, like Chicken-do-little or Ducky-do-plenty (really!). Sandy was granted his CO status and flunked his draft physical (remember, Peace Corps did not qualify as alternative service), he was able to start law school in Boston in the fall of 1970. He also earned an KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 60

MA in Asian Studies, because we still believed Asia was our destiny. There were many from K1, K2, K4, K6 and K7/8 in Boston in those years and we hung out with them. We saw David Eisenstein, Seth Shenfield, George Delaney, and Kat Thompson. Kat became a good friend, and soon she was my best friend. Kat met and married a Peru RPCV, David Ordorica. Being cold and poor in Boston was no fun for this California girl. My first job, at the Harvard Registrar’s Office paid so poorly that we qualified for Commodity Food Surplus. After a summer in Minneapolis, living with Sandy’s parents, we ended up as house parents at Bradford, a girls’ junior college in Haverhill, MA. This was followed by another summer in Minneapolis. The last two years, we were houseparents at Pine Manor Jr. College in Chestnut Hill, another private two year “girls’” school. We collected more friends. Our son Seth was born May 19, 1973 in the middle of Sandy’s law school finals. He had been conceived in Kat and David’s Beacon Hill apartment while they went on a delayed honeymoon to Scandinavia. We were living at Pine Manor, but that summer Sandy worked at the State Department Legal Advisors Office. No one else wanted them, so we got the tickets and were on the South Lawn when the Shah of Iran landed and was greeted by President Nixon and the Marine Guard. We spent the summer listening to the Watergate hearings... and then the fall and the winter. We held a big Korean first birthday celebration (tol) for Seth. A Korean friend who had been one of the language instructors at Ghost Ranch sent us the complete outfit. It was also a going away for us. My husband Sandy had gotten a Japanese Government Fellowship and we were to go to Nagoya, Japan after he studied for the Massachusetts bar exam. Kat and David had bought a big Victorian and we lived there. Our daughter was conceived there. I arrived in DC on the train the day Nixon resigned. We headed to the White House. The streets were full of people walking by in a celebratory mood, and cars creeping by to have a look at the scene. Then, we were off to Japan, where we barely got by on the fellowship intended for one person and my English teaching Friday evenings at the “Y”. Before Christmas, the professor that Sandy worked under let us know that the university would be closed for three weeks and that Japanese spend that time with their families. We had friends doing their Fulbrights in Seoul, so we went off and stayed with Ed and Diane Baker (K1) for Christmas and New Years and then travelled down for visits in Sandy’s two villages in Kyungsanpukdo. Ingrid was born at home in Nagoya with a Japanese midwife attending on April 16, 1975. The Morishimas would read and then pass on their Newsweek magazine to us. Thus it was that we learned of the fall of Saigon and the end of the war weeks after it happened. That felt so weird. After living so many years with the Vietnam War, it had ended without our knowing. By late summer in 1975, we were living in Kensington, Maryland, meeting new people, some of them to remain lifelong friends. We had left behind friends in Boston and Japan and Korea. The Christmas card list was growing! We were on the DC Mall for the fabulous 1976 Bi-Centennial fireworks. Then, we were back in the Boston area for five years (this time in West Newton about a mile from Kat). For a few years, we even had Sandy’s sister and her family living in town... the only time we have lived near family. Eventually, I rejoined the work force, working evenings as a clerk at the hospital. Then, with the ambition of becoming a nurse-midwife, I spent two years in nursing school. Our lives changed again when we moved back to DC for another five years (1981-86). We rented three different houses in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We made many wonderful friends, mostly through our children’s two schools. I worked in the newborn nursery at Washington Adventist Hospital. We enjoyed KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 61

the many free Smithsonian museums, the plentiful parks and historic sites, and cultural offerings of the area. Our daughter was bussed to Rosemary HIlls, a largely minority K through 2 in Silver Springs. We loved it. We voted in the fall 1981 PTA meeting for a slate that claimed to love it, but had plotted to close it and a junior high so that those minority students would no longer be bussed to Chevy Chase Elementary in grade 3, but be sent to other schools outside of their neighborhood. All of a sudden, we found ourselves leaders and plaintiffs in a school desegregation case and managed after many months of work and a lawsuit (Covington and Burling did pro bono work) to save Rosemary Hills Elementary from being closed and its mostly-minority students from being without any neighborhood school. That may have been my biggest accomplishment. 1986 brought a huge change in our lives. Ever since law school my husband had been working in environmental law. Now he had decided to go into teaching it. Fate took us to Houston, Texas where we would end up spending 21 years and own the only house we have ever owned. “Work for a few years, get tenure and then it will be easy to move to another law school” is what people told us. It didn’t work that way. We got stuck. We did throw ourselves into exploring our new state. To meet people, we joined groups (even a church for the first and only time). Two of these early efforts were particularly successful. We made friends and stayed active through all those years in the local RPCV organization and in a co-ed book club that we still miss! We explored the cultural offerings. Houston has a great symphony and fine opera and ballet. There are numerous small chamber groups or groups that bring in performers... more each year. There are numerous theater groups, film festivals, quirky museums, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. And, it is all so affordable compared to DC or Boston. With large populations of Mexicans, Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese and people from various mid-Eastern countries, there is no shortage of stores and restaurants to try out. I worked at Pueblo-to-People -- a fun, but very badly-run non-profit group. We imported things from cooperatives and collectives in Latin America. There was a store in SF and one in Houston, but mostly we sold through our mailorder catalogue. We made friends, too, almost all of them other “outsiders”, even if they had lived there for 40 years. We found it a very closed society in which social attitudes had not progressed much from the 50’s. “What does your husband do?” was a standard line when meeting someone at the lavish, catered parties that we enjoyed at first. The ideas of the consumer movement had not gotten to Houston by the time we left in 2007. We always felt that as soon as we walked in a room, people could tell that we didn’t have the right attitudes and did not belong. At the law school, not only did the black and Hispanic professors only socialize with “their kind”, but so did the Jewish law profesors. Except at those catered parties, that is, when in traditional Houston fashion, they would invite a hundred or more people they felt obligated to but would never invite over for a dinner. Though the high school was known as one of the best in Texas, it was awful (for all of us). Our son got stuck there, but after one year, our daughter went to Phillips Exeter in NH, finding herself with a Korean room mate in the same dorm room her father (a classmate of Peter Smith)had been in with a friend who also ended up in K4! She had absorped the Peace Corps spirit and did City Year in Boston for a year after Exeter. Getting out of Texas became our goal. From 1992 to 1994, Sandy had a high position at the US Trade Representative’s office and negotiated the environmental side agreements for NAFTA. We reconnected with our DC friends. I worked for a K4 friend who owned a health economics journal. We had moved all our things to DC, but Sandy turned down lucrative law firm work (revolving door) to return to teaching as his leave from the university ended. So we moved back. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 62

The last years were grim as the university deteriorated and we found the social atmosphere more and more oppressive. We looked for opportunities to get away and luckily there were some wonderful ones. For several years, Sandy directed a 6 week summer school program in Mexico City. I was still helping to earn college tuition money for our son and daughter, but could take long weekend breaks at least once a summer. At that point, I was working for the American Heart Association, which beat out my early Harvard job as the worst job ever. Sandy had made a very good friend, a German law professor who came to speak at a conference he organized in 1986 and invited us all over for a summer semester seminar in 1989. So, when he finally got his only sabbatical ever in fall of 1999, Gunter found us an apartment to sublet in Freiburg, Germany for fall semester, and Sandy had a Fulbright in cold, windy, wet Aarhus, Denmark for spring semester. I retired. The months in Freiburg were wonderful ones. We met congenial people. We hiked in the Black Forest. We drank lots of the local wine in charming settings. Denmark was tough at first. We were totally isolated and the temperatures were in the mid-30s with rain for weeks. Then I discovered the University International Club, run by Danish faculty wives for foreign professors and their spouses. I still have friends from those days. We took free government language classes together. The biggest thing that happened, though, is that we bought a condo in Freiburg just 2 weeks after going up to Denmark! Sandy’s mother had died just before we left the US and we had a small inheritance. In the last days in Freiburg, a sign went up at the end of our block that said they would build a small condo building. Gunter got the prospectus mailed to us; we took the train back down to Freiburg; 36 hours later we had the notarized contract. There was a semester in Tucson (2003) and academic year 2004-5 in Portland (we lived in The Pearl, a gentrifying urban neighborhood). But from 2001 through 2006, we left for Freiburg the day after commencement and came back two days before classes started. Things changed drastically in 2007 when Sandy became the director of a research institute at the University of New Mexico. Our lives had come full circle from meeting at Ghost Ranch in PC training in 1967 to actually living in the Land of Enchantment. It seemed perfect, although NM friends warned Sandy not to take the job. They told him he would always be an outsider and newcomer. We didn’t listen. We moved at the end of June in 2007. Our daughter got married two weeks later in California. And we had another K4 reunion at Ghost Ranch a month later, with me as the sole organizer! We immediately became forever friends with a woman who had been on the technical training staff for K4 and her husband who live a mile from us. Both are from the original Spanish families who came 400 years ago, and they introduced us to all the Hispanic writers, artists, philosophers, social activists, musicians in their large circle -- multi-talented people like themselves. Ironically, we two gringos have been most accepted by the Manito culture. Sandy had his dream job and I became a volunteer at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (owned and operated by the 19 Pueblo tribes of NM) and soaked up some of that culture. I continued to organize reunions for K4. As of this point, we have had 13 reunions, all at Ghost Ranch. I organized 12 of them and am working on K4s big 50th to be held in August of 2017. We have always brought our kids, but a few reunions ago, grandchildren started to show up to this place we all love. Since 2009, Sandy and I have also been on the National Ghost Ranch Foundation (the fundraising arm). Our first granddaughter, Sadie Margaret was born in Ventura, California at 5 AM on October 31, 2008. I KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 63

spent some weeks taking care of her when our daughter returned to teaching the next April. Our son was married in Maryland July of 2009. The warnings about NM came true, though. Due to massive budget cuts, Sandy learned his contract would not be renewed. Luckily, he had been working on projects with his former colleagues at Aarhus University ever since leaving in 2000. We had been back briefly a few times for seminars and conferences. They had always wanted to hire him. So, in September of 2009, he became a guest professor. It was the best university, best students and best working environment of his career. And despite the lousy climate, I was thrilled to go back to Denmark. I immediately hooked up with the International Club, found some occasional volunteer work, and gained a language partner, Gunhild. She was a terrible language teacher, but an incredible friend. We dropped the structured weekly language hour almost immediately and spent hours a week together exploring Danish life. She brought me to lectures, museums, her book club, her opera group, cake days, holiday lunches, senior bus excursions, and the open air museum. She badgered me into figuring out the Danish website to join the Friends of the Symphony. A group of us would meet up with our thermoses of coffee at the open rehearsals. She got me a Monday volunteer job cooking in the cafe of a big senior recreation center. I met friends through all of these activities, and soon I had numerous morning and afternoon coffees, and we were invited to dinners in many Danish homes. I learned Danish by talking. We lived near the center of town and walked almost everywhere, unless we had luggage or heavy bags of groceries. Then we took the bus (no car). We met some Americans, but except for an Australian and a Dutch woman, all our friends were Danish. We had lots of visitors, including Anne Trosper Kahn! For four and a half years, we were mostly in Denmark. Denmark is cool, wet and green. We could see the bay and islands from our university apartment. And, we could see one of the highest points, about 775 feet. During our brief times in NM, we had blue skies and real mountains. It was the perfect contrast. Our second granddaughter, Noelle Victoria was born at home on February 23, 2012. We were able to see her that day via Skype! Skype is the grandparents’ technology! In the fall of 2013, the Danish government slashed support to the public universities. Aarhus University decided to cut all guest professors. So we learned in the middle of December we would have to leave. It was very, very hard. And it was almost impossible to get all our goodbyes in. Since January, 2014 we have been back most of the time in New Mexico. It is the fifth largest state and we are still exploring distant corners. It took weeks to clean and replant our garden after bouts of drought and freezes while we were gone. We have spent a lot of time on the road, too. Our son had just moved to Columbia, Missouri and we have driven there twice, once with a detour to Houston to attend a meeting of our longtime bookclub. We have driven to California at least three times to see grandchildren. And our granddaughter Sadie has flown solo to New Mexico from LA twice. Kids can fly solo from age 5 on Southwest! We are both busy volunteering at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. We are also members of the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Coronado Historic Site (pueblo where Coronado camped in the winter of 1540-41). All those organizations add films, lectures, music performances, day trips and art to our lives. And we have met a nice circle of people. Last year, my husband Sandy taught a course in Luneburg, Germany (near Hamburg) and afterwards, we went back to Denmark for three weeks to see all of our friends. We had exactly one day to ourselves; otherwise, we went from one get together to the other. It was fantastic. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 64

So was our three week trip back to Korea. This time we were on our own schedule and got to see Korean friends and RPCV friends Gary Rector and Brian Barry again and again. We spent time in Sandy’s two villages. We were in Kyungju for our 46th anniversary and visited the small temple where we had been married. This year, I think the big event will be the Korea 2 50th Reunion! Answers to Leslie’s questions: After all that I had seen about the American South on television, in the newspapers, and in Life magazine, I was somewhat frightened about spending the summer of 1966 there. In the end, I only experienced one racial incident. I remember a time when we were sitting on the steps between classes. I was talking with James Clayton and an older, white woman came up and whispered something in my ear. I didn’t hear what she said, but he understood her intent immediately. Otherwise, the South to me was a series of impressions... the heat, the humidity, the insects, the lushness. It was new foods... grits with butter, slimy boiled okra, pecan pie. It was music... the outdoor concerts on the Peabody lawn and our trip to the Grand Ole Opry. The craziest and most fun thing that happened in training was the impromptu sleepout during the days that we spent at the Blue Ridge Assembly in North Carolina. We dragged our blankets and pillows up to the top of the hill. I don’t believe anyone actually slept. I still have a photo of Don Carey looking elegant in his dressing gown. And someone (was it Larry Ridgeway?) kept us awake singing “Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina...” at odd intervals. It might not have seemed so funny if we all weren’t tense from weeks of language study and the pressures of living so close. But, it seemed hysterically funny, and so I remember it. KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 65

Steve Moore [email protected] 13281 El Dorado Dr. Apt 205 B Seal Beach, CA 90740 Home phone: 818-893-2106 Cell phone: 818-421-0355 2. Several months before the end of my assignment (at two rural middle schools in Yesan and Ch’onan in Ch’ungch’ongnamdo), I went to Seoul on a whim to interview for a possible position teaching history at the US Army dependent school on Yongsan base. That interview resulted in my being offered, a few months later, a job teaching US history and creating a curriculum for a Korean Culture course at the middle and high schools. I found the transition to teaching American kids rather challenging at first, but I eventually settled in and was pleasantly surprised by the widespread interest among the students in learning about Korea. Among other activities, I organized weekend trips throughout the country in which the kid stayed in yogwans, ate Korean food and visited temples and other sights they would have been unlikely to do on their own. I was during this assignment I married one of our instructors from in-country training at Yonsei, Park Chungja. (We were divorced in 2003) After two years in Seoul, I transferred to Yokohama, Japan, where I taught history at the high school. There we had our only child, Aaron. Although the Overseas Dependent Schools job couldn’t have been more ideal (allowing opportunities for travel, free housing, a good salary and other perks), in the back of my mind I still longed to return to graduate school to study Korean language and history in greater depth. To that end I applied and was accepted into the Korea Studies program at the University of Washington (a school with excellent academics but a generally inferior athletic program. GO DUCKS!!). The two years I spent at UW, along with several other Korea RPCVs, were very rewarding, although when I finished there remained the question of what I would do with an MA in East Asia Studies. I applied to a couple of three-letter US government agencies and began a largely fruitless search for teaching jobs. (I did get one offer to teach in a remote Eskimo community in Alaska, but that seemed a bit too much to ask of my young family). I was eventually offered a position as a language officer (translator/transcriber) with the CIA in Washington DC, where I was the only non-Korean in a unit of eight to ten others. While the job was interesting and allowed a good deal of travel, the opportunities for advancement were limited. Fortunately, after a little over two years, I was selected to join the Agency’s Career Training Program, completing a one-year course and then assigned as a case officer in the Directorate of Operations, specializing in North Korea. Over the next 20-plus years in had assignments in Tokyo (twice), Vienna, NYC (twice), and finally Seoul. I also traveled to some 15-20 countries on every continent for short- term assignments. Although I am still unable to talk about many of the details of my work, I can honestly say that I had an very stimulating and at times challenging career, working against arguably the most difficult of our then adversaries, and met and worked with a wide range of amazingly talented KOREA 2 PEACE CORPS BIOS 66

individuals. One of the highlights that I’m able to mention was meeting and providing a one-on-one briefing to “M,” the head of Britain’s MI-6. I retired from the Agency in 1998, taking a job with a large international security and investigative firm where I produced reports on political risks in various East Asian countries. I worked in that capacity for just over 6 years, when our unit was sold to another firm and I chose to leave rather than relocate. For the next 10 or so years, I worked part-time as a substitute teacher (mostly to keep busy), first in Loudoun County, VA, then in Simi Valley, CA. While I found interacting with the kids to be a lot of fun, I eventually decided it was taking away from other opportunities to travel and pursue hobbies, such as painting. I am remarried to a woman (Yong Kim) with whom I fell in love almost the moment we first met (although I didn’t acknowledge it at the time) and living part year in a retirement community in Seal Beach, CA and part year in our second home on Lake Chapala (near Guadalajara) in Mexico. I spend my time traveling, oil painting and home brewing (it’s therapeutic) I have one son (a professor of Modern Japanese and East Asian history at Arizona State University) and no grandchildren. My daughter-in-law is also an academic and both are very devoted to their careers. 3. Phone: 818-893-2106; Cell: 818-421-0355 Email: [email protected] Address: 13281 El Dorado Dr. apt 205 B, Seal Beach, CA 90740 4. a. The opportunity to spend a summer in the South, particularly Nashville, was an important factor in my decision to join a training program for Korea. Both my grandmother and grandfather on my father’s side were originally from Tennessee (my grandfather went to Vanderbilt) and I had long been interested in learning more about a place so remote from my experiences growing up in the Pacific Northwest. I was not disappointed. A lot of what I learned about Nashville and Tennessee that summer – the social attitudes, the politics, the formality, even the music – helped clarify for me a lot about my grandparents and I came away with both an understanding and (and in some cases) respect for a way of looking at the world that was quite different from my own. b. I’ve been fortunate to have done a lot of interesting things, but perhaps the past several years of retirement have been the most fulfilling. I’ve been able to travel with my wife to places we wanted to go rather than places we were sent, and I’ve been able to return to art and painting – a passion in my school years – that I gave up early in my adult life. And then there’s the home brewing. c. Easy. Stay healthy and travel. d. If you have the patience to read my bio, you’ll see that nearly all of my adult life has involved Korea in one way or another. e. There are too many such incidents, but one particularly memorable one (especially given what Korea has become today) involved a remark made by another volunteer. In the summer of 1968, Ken and I joined several other volunteers on a trip by ferry to Japan during our mid-term break. On the way over, one of the group asked if there was a time difference between Korea and Japan. Some (probably smart-ass Ken) piped up instantly, “Yeah, 30 years.” (It was true then but certainly not now.) Ken and I proceeded on to Hiroshima, Kyoto and eventually to Tokyo, where we briefly joined a pro-North Korean (Chosen Soren) demonstration in the Akasaka district protesting Japanese treatment of Koreans who sided with the North. I’ve got a feeling our photos are on file somewhere in the archives of the Japanese Police Agency. (But that’s another story.) That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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Suzanne Kuffler [email protected] 49 Gosnold Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 Home phone: 508-548 4659

I currently live near the sea – an environment that I greatly enjoy. The sea is full of the abstractions and demands I also enjoy when in my studio making art. My days in Kunsan drawing cows led me to an art practice in Korea (inking over a sumi training picture of a plant) then on to block printing in Japan followed by classes in the US till I found myself in exhibitions of art videos and art films in the 70s & 80s. These contemporary works focused on a layering of audio texts with live music plus a subtitle text over original performance footage. After that period I worked in basic research labs as a lab manager and histologist until I became a caretaker for a parent and then for people in my community, a place I first visited in 1947. I presently design patterns for silk scarves: www.trywadesigns.com and occasionally do graphic work for a performer. I loved living with my Korean family and getting to know the students and the co-teachers. There were lots of good times. I have visited Korea twice more since 1968 and have come across volunteers I knew on the streets of NYC and elsewhere. The Korean language classes were an adventure. The training period in Nashville was my longest adult exposure to life in a southern US environment. The Nashville experience was as cross-cultural as any of my later travels largely in Asia where I came to appreciate new-to-me religious traditions along with other great outdoor spaces, especially the Himalayan range. Government service via the PC was a way to continue the multi cultural world I had grown up in having parents who had immigrated to the US in 1945. These days I pretty much stay in place except when I upload design files that travel to China via Holland. As for the duration, I will spend some time in my studio and walk in the woods or along the shoreline here.

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