|
In Memoriam March 12, 2008
Alice Slattery
Alice Marie Slattery, beloved wife, daughter, mother and grandmother, passed away on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008, at New Hanover Regional Medical Center following a brief illness that brought too soon an end to a vibrant life.
Born July 7, 1942, in Framingham, MA, to Tilio and Madeline Franchi, Alice married her high school sweetheart John "Jack" Slattery on December 17, 1961. Over the next 40 years, they travelled the world together - first as Peace Corps volunteers and later for the United Nations, the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department - living for extended periods in India, Western Samoa, Kenya, and Niger. She worked in Africa as a program analyst, human settlements officer, personnel officer, researcher, consultant, and in Hawaii as a teacher. While stateside, she lived in Massachusetts, Hawaii, Virginia, and Wilmington, NC.
Alice received her bachelor's degree from Goddard College and completed graduate work at George Mason University. She spoke fluent French. Throughout her life, she was an avid writer and completed two novels and numerous short stories.
Alice was a devoted practitioner of yoga for more than thirty years. In 1983, she taught her first class, received teacher certification from the Yoga and Health Studies Center of Alexandria, VA, and was a teacher member of the Mid-Atlantic Yoga Association. Alice had a devoted following of students in Niger, Virginia and at Seaside Yoga in Wilmington.
Alice and Jack moved to Wilmington in 2002. She quickly became involved in the Newcomers Club, Big Buddy Program, book groups, Emerald Forest neighborhood association, Coastal Carolina Returned Peace Corps Association, and other local organizations.
Alice is survived by her husband Jack, daughters Erin Supernor and Elisa Slattery, father Tilio Franchi, sisters Jean Connolly, Madeline Franchi, and Christine Doucette, and grandchildren Elisabeth Greene, Michael Supernor and David Supernor. She leaves behind too many friends to list individually, although they were all close to her heart.
A celebration of her life will be held at the Slattery home in Wilmington on Saturday, March 15th, beginning at 3pm. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name can be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (383 Main Avenue, 5th floor, Norwalk, CT 06851 or www.multiplemyeloma.org) or Charities of the Friends of India (c/o George Nepert, 34915 Gordy Road, Laurel, DE 19956 or www.foindia.org).
Published in the Wilmington Star-News, 2008-03-15
|
In Memoriam November 21, 2007
Cal Fricke age 83
Cal and his wife Dolores guided some lonely Peace Corps Volunteers from Dec 1966 through July 1968,
India 35 in Gujarat & I-42 & many more PCV's in India. Cal and Dolores were in Bombay where
he served as support staff for volunteers. There, he traveled to the volunteers assigned
villages in Gujarat & Maharastra. Dolores resides at 2064 Wetmore Rd. W., Tucson, AZ 85705
|
In Memoriam November 2007
It recently came to my attention that Mr. Laurence Foley
was an India PCV, which I did not know when I read about his murder in Jordan in 2002. Laurence
Foley worked in Andhra Pradesh designing, building and maintaining large model poultry farms as
part of the Indian Government's expanded nutrition program for the rural population. He also
provided extension and marketing services for fifteen rural poultry projects. Below is a CNN
article entitled: Foley remembered for 'compassion'
Jack Slattery
By CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
Saturday, December 14, 2002 Posted: 11:15 AM EST (1615 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day before he was murdered as he left for work, Laurence Foley received a "meritorious honour award" for his service as executive officer of the USAID mission in Amman, Jordan.
"Larry strove to make the world a better place than he found it," said Andrew Natsios, Foley's boss and administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"No one in USAID embodied the spirit of compassion and brotherhood that underpins our efforts more than Larry Foley," Natsios said.
Foley, who turned 60 this month, was shot to death outside his Amman home on Monday
while his wife of 34 years looked on. (Full story)
His colleagues at the U.S. Embassy in Amman paid tribute to a respected colleague, whom they called a valued friend and an inspiration.
A public servant for close to 40 years, Foley started a career in foreign service as a Peace Corps volunteer in India in 1965. In 1980 he served as the Peace Corps' associate director in the Philippines.
Foley, a Boston native, also worked as a probation and rehabilitation officer in California.
For the past 17 years, Foley worked for USAID, first in Washington and then as executive officer in Bolivia, Peru and Zimbabwe before moving to Jordan in August 2000.
He held a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts and a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from San Francisco State University.
Secretary of State Colin Powell extended condolences on behalf of the State Department to Foley's family in a written statement.
"Laurence Foley had devoted his own life to U.S. government service and to improving the lives of others through his work with the Agency for International Development," Powell said. "He will be deeply missed."
Foley's colleagues at the American Foreign Service Association said they were "deeply saddened" by his "heinous murder."
"This brutal terrorist attack underlines the vulnerability of the men and women of the U.S. Foreign Service who advance our nation's vital interest around the globe," John Naland, president of the AFSA, said in a written statement.
Naland urged the Bush administration to commit additional resources to protecting the entire diplomatic community, including off-duty spots, and to protect USAID missions around the world.
In addition to his wife, Virginia, Foley left behind three children -- Megan, Jeremie and Michael -- and two grandsons.
|
In Memoriam (from news May 2007)
Ken Saunier, former 1960s Peace Corps India staff in Madya Pradesh died on Friday,
April 20, 2007 in Euless Texas. Hilary Whittaker, a former Peace Corps staff member writes:
"I remember great visits to Madhya Pradesh and the always welcoming Saunier household where
Maudine home schooled their three little boys who are now parents themselves. I've been
happy to see Ken and Maudine through the years. Ken was always full of life, empathy,
curiosity and compassion, and plenty of projects! I know we all send our heartfelt sympathy,
hugs and prayers to Maudine."
|
In Memoriam (from news October 2006)
The information below about India PCVs who have passed away is what I have received from
others and from my own recollections. Jack Slattery President, FOI
India 38:
Pete Skinner - Pete was a PCV in Raichur District, Karnataka State in a
district-wide village-level agriculture program. Upon returning to the States,
he entered politics and was a member of the Florida State Senate.
Paul Weinstein - Paul was also a PCV in Raichur District in the same program.
I remember visiting Paul's village and having a delicious Indian meal with Paul
and his host family, sitting on the floor of the kitchen. The visit was memorable
both for the food and the fact that Paul's host farmer slapped Paul's left hand as
it reached for food. Paul and his host family had an excellent relationship.the
slap was not hard, just a reminder of Indian rituals around food.
|
In Memoriam (from news August 2006)
|
Leonard H. Robinson, Jr., president and CEO of the Africa Society, a leading
Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, died early Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at
Washington Hospital Center following a short illness. He was an India 9
Volunteer and served on PC/India staff. We will miss him. His life will
be celebrated on Tuesday, August 15 at 10:30 a.m. at the Washington
National Cathedral.
Africa Society Staff
Leonard H. Robinson, Jr.
President and CEO
The Africa Society of The National Summit on Africa
|
Leonard Robinson has more than 30 years working and living experience in international affairs, with Africa and Asia as regions of specialization. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, from 1983-85 where he was responsible for economic and commercial policy. And, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from 1990-1993, he was responsible for U.S. policy toward Central and West Africa. His other portfolios for Africa included Narcotics, Terrorism, Democracy and the Peace Corps. He also directed U.S. diplomatic initiatives to help in the resolution of the Liberia civil war.
Robinson spent six years as President of the U.S. African Development Foundation, established by Congress in 1981 to provide official assistance to community-based organizations and grassroots enterprises throughout Africa. During his tenure, annual Congressional appropriations increased from an initial $1m to $17m. He has also worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Battelle Memorial Institute, and the Peace Corps where he served as a volunteer, Associate Director for India and as Director of Minority Recruitment for the United States.
A native of North Carolina, Robinson received a BA from Ohio State University; and attended graduate school at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and post graduate school at the American University, Washington, DC, and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the recipient of two honorary doctoral degrees.
He is professor of African Studies at the University of Massachusetts --Boston, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Development and Democracy at the John W. McCormack Institute, the University's think tank. He founded LHR International Group, Inc. in 1997, a political policy consulting firm specializing in the analysis of U.S. foreign policy for the heads of state and foreign ministers of African and Asian nations.
Mr. Robinson and colleagues founded The Africa Society in 2001 as a direct outgrowth of the historic National Summit on Africa. The mission of the Africa Society is to educate and inform all Americans about the great and diverse continent of Africa. With a grant supported by the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Summit on Africa was established in 1997 to educate all Americans about Africa, to build a broad constituency of support for Africa in the United States, and to formulate a National Policy Plan of Action on U.S.-Africa Relations in the Twenty-First Century-- the Summit held a historic conference on Africa in Washington, D.C., February 16-20, 2000. Over 8,000 Americans from every state, as well as continental Africans, attended. Robinson will continue to serve as President and CEO of the newly established Africa Society of The National Summit on Africa.
Robinson is the author of several articles and publications, and serves on a number of boards and advisory councils including the National Peace Corps Association, and Discovery Channel's Global Education Fund. In 2005 Mayor Anthony Williams appointed and swore in Robinson to the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. A frequent speaker, he has made presentations at World Affairs Councils throughout the U.S., the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at UNC-Chapel Hill, UMass-Boston, Eastern Connecticut University, UCLA, The Monterey Language Institute and the Miller Center at he University of Virginia.
The University of Virginia appointed Robinson as its first Diplomat Scholar in Residence in August 2004. He has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1985.
From: The Africa Society of The National Summit on Africa website 8/11/2006
For more information about Robinson's life and work see:
Welcome to the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa
|
A Tribute to the Life of George Pothen Thekaekara (from news November 2005)
George Pothen Thekaekara, father, grandfather and finally Catholic priest, arrived in Bangalore from Changanacherry, Kerala, with the first pioneering Malayalis, in 1937, to teach physics and maths in St. Josephs Indian High School and then St. Josephs College.
Almost six feet tall, ramrod straight and endowed with a penchant for speeches peppered with home-grown humour, and a joke for all seasons, he soon became a well known personality in Bangalore by the 60's.
George moved to the Government of Karnataka as Director, Physical Education and was selected to represent the state with a scholarship to the US. Piqued by being unfairly dropped from the list, he resigned, only to find himself in the envious position of being snapped up by the USIS (United States Information Services) with a three fold salary hike. He served as Deputy Director and was at the heart of many USIS sponsored cultural events in the city. He welcomed eminent personalities such as Ambassador John Galbraith and Jazz legend Duke Ellington to his farmhouse in Banswadi and had many inside stories to tell of famous visitors to his home.
His wife and soulmate Mary was Headmistress and Superintendent of
Schools. She was imbued with even more energy, combining her exacting job with running a farm with 1000 chickens, a dairy of Jersey, Holstein cows, goats, pigs and beautiful flowers which were the talk of the town.
Teaching was George's first love so he took a sabbatical in the mid 1960's to teach high school math in N.J.
Just as he was planning to return to India, Mary and he were offered an assignment with the Peace Corps and always ready for a new challenge, he accepted. Off they went to St. Croix to assist in training India 33, the group that was coming to Kerala to help out in poultry farming. Mary taught them Malayalam and George everything else! Once back in India, the group became extended family. Mary and George's home in Banswadi, Bangalore was home away from home for the PCV's. George and Mary maintained their connection with many of their "boys" over the years.
In the 1970's he moved from centre stage Bangalore life, to Baltimore, where he taught high school maths and physics. He had fascinating stories to tell about working in a special school for drop out inner city kids serving jail sentences whom he considered specially challenging and exciting. At the other end of the spectrum he taught privileged Jewish kids in a rabbinical school. He attacked both jobs with his legendary enthusiasm, discipline and sense of humour.
Mary's death by cancer in 1982 was a painful blow, but George did not give up. Instead he returned from the US at 70 to begin theology and philosophy studies at St. Peters Seminary, Bangalore. He went to classes every day dutifully from 9 am to 4pm like his grandchildren, a 70 year old among 20 year olds, and fought diligently for his right to a student's bus pass!! In the seminary with failing eyesight he battled Greek, Latin and Hebrew and passed his exams in spite of everyone's dire predictions. He had a hard time finding a Bishop willing to take this highly critical student but finally Bishop Frederick D'Souza of Jhansi accepted him on trial. It was difficult for the seventy five plus former Director to bow down to vows of obedience and poverty but he made the transition to the extreme heat and cold of Jhansi, the different cuisine etc. and was ordained a priest at the age of 83, narrowly escaping making it to the Guiness Book of records. A few years later he retired and returned to Bangalore.
He leaves behind his four children Merlyn, Alpheen, Phillip and Stan. And grandchildren Nimmi, David, Allan, Matthew, Tahira, Tarshish and Tariq.
Till his mid 80's he remained ramrod straight, absolutely fit, insisting on doing some manual work everyday in his much loved garden. A fall in the bathroom just before his 89th birthday, was his undoing. The broken hip healed but began a downward spiral and he succumbed to diabetic related complications months before his 90th birthday. It was a measure of the man, his extraordinary fighting spirit, determination and resilience, that all who knew him were shocked by his death. He remained in spirit a very young 89 year old.
Mari Marcel Thekaekara
|
In Memoriam (from news May 2005)
Daniel Foley (1943-2001)
Dan Foley (born Milwaukee, WI 7 July 1943) died 17 November 2001 while
teaching a one-day workshop on MARC cataloging for the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee School of Information Studies. He received his MLS
in 1983 the of the UWM SOIS, having previously completed Bachelor and
Master degrees in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Dan returned
to Milwaukee and UWM in September 2000 as the nonbook cataloger and
metadata librarian after nearly 20 years in a variety of cataloging jobs
in Louisiana. He served in the Peace Corps in the Indian state of Carrola
in the 1960s and had a deep love of Louisiana Jazz. He is survived by his
mother, a brother, and a sister.
|
In Memoriam (from news April 2005)
Ms. Ann McCreary Burns (January 30, 1934 - March 11, 2005)
The family of Ms. Ann McCreary Burns informed us that Ann passed away on
March 11, 2005 at home in Encinitas, CA. She passed very peacefully and in a
manner befitting the way she lived life--surrounded by family and friends.
Many of us in Peace Corps know Ms. Ann McCreary Burns as the wife of Jack Burns
who was on Peace Corps/India staff in the late 60s. Ann was a tremendous
support to the young and no-so-young Peace Corps Volunteers serving at that
time.
After leaving India in 1970 she and her family moved to Boston, MA. And then to
Cleveland Heights, OH where Ann began a career in real estate.
In 1981, the
family relocated to San Diego, CA where Ann continued her career in real estate
and began a second career in residential interior design. She remained in
contact with many of her India friends over the years.
|
|
|
In Memoriam (from news November 2004)
|
On October 24, 2004, Shri Narsimha Basawaraj Hiremath died at the age of 88.
Mr. NB, as he became fondly known, was a true humanitarian.
His association with Peace Corps started after he returned from the US where he
earned an MS in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Missouri. The Government of Mysore assigned him to be Principal of the Gramasevaka Training
Center in Gangavathi, Raichur District, Karnataka. The day after he arrived in
Gangavathi in June 1963, he learned that he was the supervisor of three (later
four) India III Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). Mr. Hiremath guided those young
Volunteers in their work and left them with a life-long respect and love for
India and her people. In turn, Mr. Hiremath began a long association with Peace
Corps/India that ended only when Peace Corps closed its program in India.
|
|
In the early days of Indian poultry development, Mr. Hiremath co-authored the
booklet "Modern Poultry Farming for Profit" which was translated into at least
four Indian languages and widely used by poultry farmers and PCVs in India. In
the mid-1960s he worked with PC/Bangalore staff to design and implement an
innovative Village Level Food Production Program in Karnataka for India 38 and
42 PCVs. This program was part of the "Green Revolution" promoting and teaching
the use of high-yielding varieties of crops to increase food production.
After retiring from the Government of Mysore service, Mr. Hiremath was PC
Training Co-Director for the India 124, 125 and 126 Science Teacher Training
Workshop Program for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa states. Subsequently he
was the Director in the PC/Orissa Office and finished up at PC/Bangalore where
in 1975 he had the sad job of helping close out PC programs in India.
Still eager to contribute to the less fortunate of India, he joined World
Neighbors for several years. Even after he officially retired, he continued to
share his knowledge and energy. In 1994 when our daughter and I visited the
Hiremaths at their home in Basawana Kudichi village, Belgaum
District,Karnataka, we watched him, then age 79, spend afternoons tutoring a
young village boy.
Mr. Hiremath truly made a difference in his lifetime. While respecting cultural
variations, he was adept at bridging the differences between Indians and
Americans and he elicited the best in both. He improved the lives of those
around him and inspired so many of us who had the opportunity of knowing and
working with him. Those whose lives he touched will remember him always and
miss him.
Jack and Alice Slattery (India 3)
|
|
In Memoriam (from news July 2004)
|
RUTH (Haugse) McKINNEY India 14
Ruth passed away in Portland, Oregon on June 15, 2004 after six years of
dealing with Alzheimer's disease. She was 67. As a Volunteer, she served
in Andhra Pradesh in a health and nutrition program. She is survived by her
sons William ("Raj") and Keith and her former husband Bill McKinney,
also an India 14 Volunteer. Ruth was a nurse whose kindness permeated her life.
Her friends remember her as a vibrant and beautiful person and will miss her
very much. Remembrances may be sent to the research fund of the
Alzheimer's Association. |
|
|
|
PATRICK CAREY India 99?
Pat died suddenly on May 28, 2004 while in Washington, D.C. He served as a
Volunteer in Karnataka from 1970-72. He was 56 and had fought a lifelong battle
with multiple sclerosis. A 30-year employee of CARE, Pat worked in many
countries (including India) in an effort to alleviate poverty and human
suffering. He is survived by his twin sons John and Matthew whom he adopted in
India. Pat touched many lives with his honesty, compassion, candor, positive
attitude and sense of humor.
|
|
|
|
