THE SIXTIES

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
-- President John F. Kennedy

The Peace Corps begins as a call to service.

In his inaugural address of January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenges a new generation of Americans to join "a grand and global alliance" to fight tyranny, poverty, disease, and war. "To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery," he says, "we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves."

On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signs an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Three days later, Sargent Shriver is appointed its first Director.

In July, Peace Corps assignments have been planned for Ghana, Tanzania, Colombia, the Philippines, Chile, and St. Lucia. More than 5,000 applicants take the first exams to enter the Peace Corps.

On August 28, 1961, President Kennedy hosts a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden to honor the inaugural group of Volunteers, who will serve in Ghana and Tanzania. The 51 Americans who land in Accra, Ghana, make an immediate impression on their hosts: they form a chorus on the airport's tarmac in front of the minister of education and other officials and sing the Ghanaian national anthem in Twi, the local language.

On September 22, 1961, Congress approves legislation formally authorizing Peace Corps, giving it the mandate to "promote world peace and friendship" through three goals: (1) To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers; (2) To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and (3) To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

By the end of 1963, 7,000 Volunteers are in the field, serving in 44 countries from Afghanistan to Uruguay. More than half of the Volunteers work in education, one-fourth in community development and the remainder in agriculture, health care, and public works.

In April 1964, the Peace Corps Partnership Project is established, a program that allows Americans here at home to support and contribute to Volunteer projects overseas.

By June of 1966, more than 15,000 Volunteers are working in the field, the largest number in the Peace Corps' history.

"We were the Peace Corps, the shiny new creation that President Kennedy had proposed in the last days of his 1960 campaign, his experiment in international development. Everyone, it seemed, was impressed. That summer, all across the country, our names were read on our local news stations on the days we departed for training. We were front-page stories in newspapers as diverse as the New York Times and the Kalamazoo Gazette. We were on the evening news with Walter Cronkite, and Huntley and Brinkley."
-- John Coyne (Peace Corps Volunteer, Ethiopia, 1962-64)

THE SEVENTIES

"The spirit of the Peace Corps springs from the deepest wells in our culture, from the reasoned and strongly felt impulses of our people to share with their neighbors their caring and their labor."
-- President Jimmy Carter

For the Peace Corps, the 1970s are a time of change, far-ranging ambition, and specialized talent.

Despite budget constraints, by December of 1974, Volunteers are serving in sixty-nine countries, the largest number to date. The Peace Corps is working with developing nations as never before to plan and select projects to meet their specific needs. More foreign nationals join the Peace Corps as administrators; by 1973, they make up more than half of Peace Corps' overseas staff.

Volunteers are more qualified than ever. Men and women with professional skills, such as doctors, engineers, and horticulturists, account for more than a fifth of the Volunteers. These Volunteers, Peace Corps officials believe, will have a significant "multiplier effect" -- they will transfer their talents to host country nationals who will in turn share them with their fellow citizens.

As the Peace Corps becomes older, so do its Volunteers. The average age of a Volunteer reaches 27, and five percent of Volunteers are over 50 years old.

In July 1971, the Nixon Administration folds the Peace Corps and several other federal volunteer programs into a new federal volunteer agency called ACTION. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter signs an Executive Order that grants the Peace Corps full autonomy.

At the close of the decade, more than 6,000 Volunteers are at work in the field and two returned Volunteers have been elected to the United States Senate: Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, who served in Ethiopia from 1962-64, and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who was a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1966-68.

"The kids I taught were always with me, and I loved them even more than I once loved my privacy. I always wanted to have children, but I never thought I'd have so many and so soon."
-- Tina Martin (Peace Corps Volunteer, Tonga, 1969-71)

THE EIGHTIES

"Each one of us is responsible for building the society we want. Peace Corps volunteers do that with people-to-people exchanges, using their energy, their spirit, and their creativity to solve problems.This is the American way. Once we see a need, we want to serve -- even when the neighbor we reach out to help is halfway around the world."
-- President Ronald Reagan

For the Peace Corps, the 1980s prove to be a time both to reflect and to move forward. Reflection takes the form of celebrations, donations and a parade: In 1981, Congress passes legislation that makes the Peace Corps an independent federal agency. On June 2, 1981, a celebration to honor the Peace Corps' 20th anniversary is held in Washington, D.C. To date, nearly 98,000 Volunteers have served in 88 countries. On September 19-20, 1986, Peace Corps celebrates its 25th anniversary. Five thousand returned Volunteers gather at the Washington Mall in the nation's capital to take part in the celebration. On November 20, 1986, the John F. Kennedy Library hosts a special Peace Corps remembrance of President Kennedy, 25 years after his death. Peace Corps archives, including Volunteer journals and other artifacts, are donated to the library. And on January 20, 1989, a group of returned Volunteers, carrying the flags of more than 60 nations where Volunteers have served, march in the presidential inaugural parade.

Far from being nostalgic about the past, however, Peace Corps staff and Volunteers push ahead with the same dedication to improving people's lives, including a new emphasis on small-business development. In 1982, Loret Miller Ruppe, who will serve longer than any other Peace Corps director, launches a program called Competitive Enterprise Development to promote business-oriented projects. In addition, Peace Corps establishes several other new programs -- the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the Initiative for Central America and the African Food Systems Initiative -- to help the nations in these areas of the world solve problems particular to their regions.

In 1982, the number of Volunteers falls to 5,380 -- the lowest number since 1962 -- but by 1985, funding has increased and by 1986, the number of Volunteers reaches 6,264. In 1985, Congress establishes a goal of having 10,000 Peace Corps Volunteers serving in the field by the year by 1992.

On January 30, 1985, the first Peace Corps Fellows Program is established at Teachers College/Columbia University to recruit, prepare and place returned Volunteers as teachers in the New York City public schools. The Fellows Program soon expands to include teachers of different subjects such as English as a Second Language as well as people interested in disciplines such as Business Administration, Nursing, Public Health, and Urban and Regional Planning.

On September 28, 1989, Director Paul Coverdell announces the establishment of "World Wise Schools," a new program that enables students in America's schools to correspond with Volunteers serving overseas in an effort to promote international awareness and cross-cultural understanding. By the late fall of 1989, more than 550 schools are participating in the program.

"The rush of pride and sense of awareness I shared with the people I worked with comes back to me at different times during my life today. I think of it when I need a reminder of how human beings everywhere contribute each day to the well-being of our world. This happens whether we are recognized for it or not. This lesson is one of the many gifts given to me while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer."
-- Dianne Garyantes (Peace Corps Volunteer, Dominican Republic, 1989-91)

THE NINTIES

"The Peace Corps is a remarkable tradition that emphasizes that our country is about more than power and wealth. It is also about the power of our values and the power of a helping hand, the ethic of service, and the understanding that we have an obligation not only to our own people, to people around the world to help them make the most of their own lives."
-- President Bill Clinton

For the Peace Corps, the 1990s are a decade of firsts. On June 15, 1990, President George Bush praises the first Volunteers to serve in Eastern Europe during a Rose Garden ceremony before they depart for Hungary and Poland. On July 22, 1992, the first group of Volunteers to serve in the former Soviet Union leaves to work in small business enterprise projects in Estonia, Latvia. and Lithuania. In October 1993, Carol Bellamy becomes the first returned Volunteer to be confirmed by the Senate as Director of the Peace Corps. On June 12, 1993, the first group of Volunteers to work in China leaves to serve as English teachers. In August 1995, Mark Gearan is confirmed by the Senate as the 14th Director of the Peace Corps. He launches the Crisis Corps, a new program that allows returned Volunteers to provide short-term assistance during natural disasters and humanitarian crises. By 1998, Crisis Corps Volunteers are serving in Guinea, Bolivia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, and other countries. On April 30, 1996, the Peace Corps hosts the first Conference on International Volunteerism. Vice President Al Gore opens the conference with an address to the leaders of 36 volunteer organizations from 26 countries at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

The decade also sees the return of the first "firsts": on June 19, 1996, President Clinton honors the first group of Volunteers ever to serve in the Peace Corps. In a reunion in the Rose Garden, the Peace Corps' trailblazers, who served in Ghana 35 years before, meet a new group about to leave for the same country.

In September 1996, the Loret Miller Ruppe Memorial Lecture Series is established. The series serves as a forum for distinguished individuals to speak about issues related to the Peace Corps' mission, such as volunteerism, international peace and development, and public service. Former Peace Corps Country Director and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke delivers the first lecture. John Hume, a pivotal figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, delivers the second lecture on St. Patrick's Day 1998.

On February 13, 1997, 31 Peace Corps Volunteers leave the U.S. to become the first group ever to serve in South Africa.

On April 30, 1997, the first group of Volunteers to serve in Jordan begin in small business development and ecotourism, primarily with women. By the end of 1998, the first Volunteers begin serving in new Peace Corps programs in Bangladesh and Mozambique. On March 18, 1998, the six returned Peace Corps Volunteers who serve in Congress, Secretary of Health and Human Services and returned Volunteer Donna Shalala, and former Peace Corps Director Paul Coverdell testify before the House Committee on International Relations in support of President Clinton's initiative to expand the Peace Corps to 10,000 Volunteers by the year 2000.

With the new millennium approaching, the Peace Corps moves into its own headquarters building on 20th Street in Washington, D.C. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Queen Noor Al-Hussein of Jordan, members of the President's cabinet, Members of Congress, dignitaries, returned Volunteers, and many friends of the Peace Corps join together on September 15, 1998, to dedicate the Peace Corps' home for the 21st century.

"My parents, who had served as Volunteers in Kenya 25 years before I joined the Peace Corps, had absolutely no idea how much influence they had during their two years of service. They did not consider themselves exceptional Volunteers; they simply went to class, taught a variety of subjects in the best way they knew how, and loved the people they lived among. But returning with me to their village so many years later, they were struck by the undeniable realization that they had indeed changed people's lives."
-- Tara Elizabeth Beverwyk (Peace Corps Volunteer, Malawi, 1995-98)