B u l l e t i n - Noble and Greenough School

FroM tHe arCHIVes
What It Was like to Be First
How One Decision Changed Everything
To go or not to go, that was the question. In late
June 1961, just out of college and fully committed
to attending law school, a telegram arrived at
my parents’ home in lowell, Mass., announcing
that I had been selected by the Peace Corps to serve “in China
or some other West african country.” If there were questions I
should call Sargent Shriver, and if interested in a two-year
commitment as a secondary school teacher, I should report for
training at Berkeley, Calif., on July 2. after a late-night heartto-heart
father-and-son talk, call I did and report I did. Why
not? one could be first only once, and law school could wait.
on aug. 29, just two month days later, hastily trained by a
superior team of academics and suitably energized by a sendoff
reception with JFK in the rose Garden, I boarded a Pan
am prop flight for accra with 50 other members of Ghana1,
the first group to begin service as Peace Corps volunteers.
In this age of customary government gridlock, it is
amazing to recall the pace at which the Kennedy administration
got things done. The Peace Corps was established by
executive order on March 1, 1961, hardly a month after the
inauguration. While Congress was slow to authorize funding,
expressing concern with “Kennedy’s Kiddie Kore” and
that “american youth will be dupes for the Communists,”
the agency had resources to begin training for a handful of
countries. Why was Ghana1 first into the field? after becoming
the first african country to win independence from
the colonial powers in 1957, the new government took
steps to address a critical need by launching a program to
establish 38 new secondary schools. The result for the Peace
Corps was a happy mutuality of interests. Ghana needed
teachers right away and Kennedy was eager to force the
hand of Congress by “creating facts,” placing volunteers on
the ground and at work. We were rushed through training,
eschewing time-consuming language acquisition, as Ghana,
where some 70 languages are spoken, had been the Gold
Coast, a British, English-speaking colony. The ploy worked.
By the time the funding was finally authorized in late September,
I had already been teaching in the coastal town of
62 the Nobles bulletiN spring 2012
Winneba for over three weeks. By the end of the Corps’
first two years, there would be more than 7,000 americans
serving in 44 countries.
as we headed off for Ghana, I was anxious. What would
africa really be like? Would I be accepted, could I teach and
would I enjoy myself? Well, it turned out that in the early
1960s, newly independent Ghana was a happening place. I
felt immediately welcome, and recognized the Ghanaian personality,
one marked by hospitality, friendliness and humor.
It seemed that every dignitary in the world wanted to take a
look at the new country: the Queen, Prime Minister nehru
(remember the fashionable nehru jacket?), Premier Zhou
enlai, First Secretary Molotov (of Molotov cocktail fame)
and Malcolm X (who actually stopped by Winneba on his
way to Mecca, to speak at the nkrumah Institute for Positive
action and anti-neocolonialism). Many descendants of the
african diaspora, from the U.S. and elsewhere, were inspired
to return to help out. These included the robert Freeman
family, along with their gifted son Bob (see story, p. 4), and
W.E.B. DuBois (there in exile, working on the Encyclopedia
africana), whom I met one night at a new national theatre
company performance. another nobles connection joined in
the parade. one day during the second year, I looked out my
classroom window and spotted two figures approaching the
school. It was the intrepid richard T. Flood, assistant headmaster,
accompanied by trustee robert Hunneman.