This diary details the daily volunteer experiences of the Ziegler family from 1970-1972 in Colombia, South America. Delwyn was age 38, Claire was age 30, Colette 4 1/2, and Andre 2 1/2. Delwyn, a former hospital controller, worked in business administration programs, including small business consulting and hospital administration. Claire, a fluent French speaker, taught French at a high school as well as at the Alliance Française. The Zieglers participated in the Peace Corps' experiment with families. Previously the Peace Corps had accepted only singles and couples. In an attempt to recruit more senior people with experience, the Peace Corps tried to see how families might work out as volunteers. The Zieglers were part of a group of five families recruited for Colombia.
Howard Ellegant was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 1964-1966. Ellegant served as an architect planning schools and community centers. This is Ellegant's Peace Corps Volunteer Termination Report, February 1966. The report was presented to the Peace Corps upon completion of Ellegant's service as a Peace Corps Volunteer Architect, serving in Medellín, Colombia.
American University Library. Archives and Special Collections.
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Mr. W. Dennis Grubb peacefully entered into eternal rest on October 25, 2021 at home in Washington, D.C., SW after a courageous, multi-year battle with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare form of Parkinson’s. He was 80. The Peace Corps, global development, education, and the church have propelled his lifelong service to help others in nations on five continents. An Eagle Scout, Mr. Grubb joined the-then new Peace Corps at the age of 19 as one of its first and youngest volunteers, and served in Colombia One (1961-1963). He worked in Zipacon, a village 8,700 feet high in the Andes, a place with no running water or sewers, little electricity and few paved roads. Illiteracy, malnutrition, dysentery and tuberculosis were rampant. To address them, Mr. Grubb, Mr. Thomas Whalen, a fellow Volunteer, and the Colombian counterpart (referred to as promotor) assigned to their team by the Office of Community Development in Bogota, formed a liaison between Zipacon and government officials and secured assistance to build the first cooperative food store, a small medical center, three schools, roads, and a water supply pipeline. When the government offered a day of free chest X-rays and vaccinations, he and fellow Volunteers plastered the village with announcements, producing a record turnout upon the doctors arrival. He worked with Colombians of all levels, from rural farmers to national officials, to achieve his overall goal, which was to convince the community that they could control their lives. Mr. Grubb later said that his idealistic view of a peaceful and humane world was formed by his experience in Colombia.