Friends of Nigeria Newsletter Selections, Winter 2003

Can you help?

I am Patricia (nee Ukoli) Ogedengbe a librarian of Africana at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. I am attempting to locate Madam McReynolds, who taught me at Marymount College, a Catholic girls high school, Agbor, (about 40 miles from Asaba) in 1961. I do not remember her first name because we did not refer to our teachers by first names then. I think she taught us literature, and was our music director so to speak. She taught us many Negro spirituals, and American folk songs. We even staged the play Hiawatha under her direction. She is a beautiful and imposing woman with a deep, “huge” and sweet voice. I sang some solos in Hiawatha because she believed that I had a good voice too. She also gave us hints on self development. How to sit up straight, to care for our nails etc. I wish I can see her again.

I thank you very much. Regards.
Dr. Patricia Ogedengbe, Librarian of Africana, Northwestern University
Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Evanston, IL 60208-2300

Thinking About going back?

Dear FON,
Paul Willis (25) 66–69 is my neighbor, living only 2 miles distant. It was through his desire to revisit his friends in Nigeria, in 1994, that he invited me to accompany him. He found all but 3 buds, which was amazing to me after such a long time. The grapevine in Nigeria is very alive and well. They were so pleased and accommodating and generous to the both of us, I was influenced to return by myself in 1997. They have welcomed me back, warmly, a total of 9 times now. My benefactor there, Olu Shaba, has always greased the skids thru immigration for me, which encouraged me to return. He is a dear friend, and now comes to visit me in the U.S.A., twice a year, warm season only! I owe him a heap of gratitude. He bunks me in his guest house when I arrive, with a cook and housekeeper, “Man, what a life!”

I would encourage anyone wishing to return, to do so. The extortion at immigration has been eliminated, so it is no longer necessary to arrange an escort through customs. You may be selected for scrutiny, but it is no different than foreigners entering this country.

Corruption is rampant throughout the country, but does not involve foreigners, unless you want to buy something, anything, then expect the quoted price to be inflated to the 4th power. The average citizen is fortunate to find any type of employment, with an average annual income of $428.00. This lack of earning power leads to the desperate attempts to extract extra cash from inexperienced foreigners. They also have a healthy dose of greed. I estimate unemployment is upwards of 50%, which now has emerged in armed robberies on the roads at night. There have also been political assassinations of late. Only time will tell if public resolve for better conditions will eventually bring improvements. I pray for this to happen, as the people are pleasant, and deserve much better conditions. It is an enjoyable climate, with all fruits and vegetables available.

The unsuspecting traveler,
Dennis Pals.
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During my month long stint as a USAID volunteer in the Farmer-to-Farmer program in Kaduna, Nigeria I met Rose Obadaki, a hotel manager by day and aspiring art dealer by night. She took me to her makeshift gallery, hidden in a resort cottage on a small man-made lake on the outskirts of town. It was quite a ride getting there from central Kaduna. As a friend of Nigeria you know just what I mean. The art was worth the trip. One after another, Rose pulled out beautiful work.
As soon as I was over my jet lag, I called the Frank Stone Gallery in Minneapolis. It’s owned by Lynn Olson (10) 64–66 and her husband, Frank Stone. Lynn was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, which made it easy to convince her of the great work Rose had for us to show in Minneapolis.
With several months to plan a visit, Rose and I planned for herself and two Nigerian artists to come to the opening party at the gallery in Minneapolis.
Rose tried in vain for months to get a visa to come to the opening. Lynn and I wrote letters of invitation. An anxious intern spent two days at the fax machine trying to get a fax to go through to Rose and the embassy. Next we spent a small fortune and sent letters over via FedEx. Rose traveled to meetings in Abuja. I called every Republican I ever dated. A very anxious intern was on the phone for hours. It was all to no avail. The best answer we got was, “Check back in a few months.”
By the time we had to give up on getting the artists here, I had already sent out dozens of press releases and about 3,000 postcards inviting the world to come meet the artists and see the work. Many of the local arts calendars had already printed information on the show and the artists who now weren’t coming. We decided the show must go on and that Rose would just ship the work to Minneapolis.

Rose and her Dad built a crate, packed it full of paintings and drawings and went to drop it off at the Kaduna FedEx office where they told Rose to call London to set up a pick up. After a week of constantly talking to FedEx operators around the world, we found out that there isn’t an official FedEx office in Kaduna. Someone got their hands on a sign and created a FedEx office that was closed down the next week when Rose stopped by.
Rose and her Dad went to DHL and shipped the crate of art straight away. The crate sat in the Kaduna DHL office for a week. Then it disappeared. The anxious, now angry intern spent three full days on the phone with DHL trying to find it.
The paintings eventually made it to London just in time for a bomb scare and airline strike, all in the same day. This also happened to be the day we were supposed to hang the paintings in the gallery. It was one day before the opening reception and we had no artists and no paintings to show off.
We hung photos I took in Kaduna and had the party. The night was a huge success, we had well over two hundred people come and not one of them said, “Where’s the art? “
The next day, the intern got a call from DHL. The crate was in Wisconsin on its way to Minneapolis. We’d have paintings in time for the second week of the show. A great excuse to alert the media and have another party!
The paintings started selling immediately. Every day the gallery was open, we sold at least one piece, usually more. In the art world, that’s selling like hotcakes.
The paintings are still available through the Frank Stone Gallery at 612-617-9965 www.frankstonegallery.com. To see them, just call the Gallery or email me at julie@abbaspr.com , and we’ll email you scans or better yet, show them to you in person in Minneapolis.
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Once again, the Museum for African Art offers a show of exemplary quality, richness and instruction. In fact, this is the first-ever comprehensive show of the arts of the Urhobo, approximately 1.5 million strong, who live in the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta. Included are masks and other carvings; a large communal boat-like shrine made of bamboo and raffia; contemporary etchings; photographs by the curator and his associates; several excellent videos; a display of catalogues; and computer access to three Urhobo websites.
Like many of the best African art shows, this one is both beautiful and delightfully informative. What did I learn? A single example: the Urhobo are known for iphri, carved figures which shock and awe in order to modulate male aggression, tempering it in those who love it too well, pumping it up in the overly timid.
Scattered among the traditional Urhobo pieces are contemporary epoxy-resin etchings on traditional themes by Bruce Onobrakpeya (b.1932). An example is udju mara, a family on its way to the farm. The elaborate decorative patterns combine beauty scars and ‘tattoos’ with other facial scarification, holdovers from times of war when the marks differentiated friend from foe. A richly decorated mother wears an ornate wrapper depicting a mother decorated with the same patterns as the ‘real’ mother. The result is a feast of line and swirl.

The show is curated by Perkins Foss whose passion for Urhobo culture dates from a 1965 visit to Nigeria as a 21-year old undergraduate art student. Returning the next year as a PCV, Foss worked as an ethnographer for the Department of Antiquities, Lagos, where he constituted a ‘Peace Corps program of one.’ Here is a sampling from our question and answer session:
FON: Can you describe your early ‘history’ in Nigeria??
PF: I was given a billet in Ughelli with Kevin Montgomery (21) 66–67 and Andy Philpot (VSO) 65–67 who were teaching at Government College. [He soon got married.] We then lived in Sapele until August of ’67 when, unfortunately, the Civil War was more than just getting hot. We went to Ghana for a short while. We were technically Federal volunteers, so we came back and lived on Ajasa Street behind the Museum in Lagos.
FON: What was your job?
PF: My job was to identify monuments (shrine buildings), where possible to make arrangements for photography, documentation, sometimes to offer some help to strengthen the shrine buildings. I photographed a lot of festivals …part of the documentation. And I collected works of art from Urhobo for the National Museum.
FON: Did you run into cases where PCV’s wanted to take pieces out, and there were questions? I was on the other side of that divide, I guess.
PF: Well, I was on both sides of it, at different times. Nigeria was virtually the only country in Africa to have an antiquities ordinance. Certainly, it was abused, by both sides: petty tyranny by junior museum staffers who would harass people. Of course, there were also mistakes, some pieces considered antiquities which were not, and the other way around. But the collection in Lagos is what it is today in large part because of things that were collected in those years.
FON: And then?
PF: Early ’68, back into Urhobo until August, ’68, then back to the States to grad school, and then I was back in ’69 into Urhobo, and then in ‘70 I came back (on a Ford Foundation fellowship) for two years.
FON: Any ongoing connection with the Peace Corps?
PF: I always talk up the Peace Corps. People come to me, their sons or daughters vaguely interested in joining. I say, “Fantastic! It made my life.” I will never feel bad about paying my taxes (dutifully). And I subscribe to the Newsletter. (He wonders about the present whereabouts of legendary PCV Bob Koepp (16) 65–67).
FON: How often have you returned to Nigeria?
PF: In ’97 I was invited to go back to Benin City on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the invasion of Benin City, the Punitive Expedition. That was the first time I’d been back since ’79. And I went back into Urhobo with Bruce.
(He describes meeting the children and younger wives of the now-deceased elders from those days, and the subsequent genesis of this show.)
I go back and forth. I’ve been back once, if not twice, every year for the last seven years. As soon as I can scratch together the bucks, I go.
FON: What are things like in Urhobo these days?
PF: Sad. People are substantially poorer than they were 25–30 years ago. One of the big problems is oil. The three groups in the area, Urhobo, Izon [Ijaw] and Itsekiri, have become very contentious. (We go on to discuss conflict and art in the Delta. He points out pieces in the show that exemplify past, rich cross-fertilization in the art of the three groups.) These pieces point to a notion around the world: art is often the binder of different cultures.
FON: What’s made you keep up this work for so long?
PF: It’s an obsession, I love Urhobo.

Mr. Onabrakpeya told me that a new arts center is scheduled for completion next year just outside Ughelli, in the Urhobo heartland. In light of the murderous disputes which roil the relationships of the Urhobo and their neighbors, a new arts center seems a brave and welcome venture.
Coincidentally, the Museum for African Art is scheduled to move in 2005 or 2006 to its permanent home on “Museum Mile” on Upper Fifth Avenue, Manhattan. Meanwhile, the Museum remains twenty minutes from Grand Central Station.
In conjunction with this show are numerous artistic, musical and other events, many for families. The show runs until 16 August 2004, after which it travels to museums around the country. The smaller, Focus Gallery displays (until 28 June 2004) several dozen Yoruba ibeji (twin) figures.•
Museum Location and Hours:
36-01 43rd Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101
Monday, Thursday, Friday – 10AM-5PM
Saturday and Sunday – 11AM-5PM
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday

Please go to www.africanart.org for transit information, directions, and a schedule of events or call 718-784-7700 or visit www.africanart.org For Urhobo information: www.waado.org www.urhobowaado.info www.urhobo.kinsfile.org
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The Origins Of The Ibos of Nigeria
Sam Omenyi continues with his series of articles about Nigeria from his home in Enugu.

The military coup of January 15, 1966, which toppled the civilian government of the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Tafawa Balewa was called an Ibo-coup because most of the leaders were Ibos. A counter coup of July 1966 saw the death of several Igbo army officers and men, and then the reckless slaughter of civilians, suspected to be Ibos, mainly in the Northern part of Nigeria.
This seemingly apparent rejection of the Ibos by the Nigerians led the Ibos to start asking questions about their identity. This inquiry, which has led to several discoveries, has uncovered several interesting connections between the Ibos of Nigeria and the Hebrews of Israel.
History books and contemporary writers on the subject of the origin of the Ibos of Nigeria, confirm that they originated from Israel, that they were part of the “fall-out” of the scattered Hebrews from their native land, Israel, around 597BC and 70AD, respectively. According to an article in the magazine Body and Soul, Series 4 of 2003, pages 25 – 28, the name “Hebrew” started with the man called Eber (see Chronicles 1:17). Eber as a name was later changed to Hebrew and then to Heebu, to Heebo to Eboe and finally to Ibo.
Recent archeological discoveries in Igboukwu, a town about 30 kilometers from Onitsha by a team of researchers led by Professor Thurstan Shaw (1970) of the University of Ibadan, gave more facts about the relationship.
Alaezi (1998) comments: “There is a very significant concentration of Eri, the fifth son of Gad (see Genesis 46:16) in Aguleri (Agul-Eri), Anambra State, where recently a very important discovery of a clear evidence of Jewish ancestral origin of the Ibos was made in the domain of the traditional ruler of Aguleri at the instance of an Israeli team on a fact-finding mission in December 1997. There and then, one of the “memorial” onyx stones for the sons of Israel as the Lord commanded Moses (see Exodus 39:7) was discovered and identified as such by the King Solomon Shepherdic Federation team. On the stone discovered in Aguleri was engraved the name “Gad” in Hebrew language reminding one of the writing in Exodus 39:14, There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of the twelve tribes.
Dr. Basden (1861) of Anglican Mission, pointed in convincing details certain social and religious striking similarities between the Ibos and the Hebrews in Europe which made him conclude that the “Ibos are a branch of the Hebrews” and any Europeans wishing to deal with them should first go and acquaint himself with the mosaic laws. He pointed out the similar customs of circumcision and mummification, family life as well as identical sentence structures.
An Igbo ex-slave in London, Olaudah Equiano (c.1745–1797), in his writings The Interesting Narratives and Ibo Society in Mid-century, first expressed the view of the origin of the Ibos from Israel by reasons of social behaviors and cultural similarities. Ethnographically and culturally, Equiano likened his people, the Ibos, to the Jews or the Hebrews.

The feeling that Israel is aware of this relationship is expressed by the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Noam Katz who said to the Sunday Sun of Sunday, March 28, 2004, in Abuja: “I am aware and sure that we have unique traditions, culture and strong bonds that link us to the Igbo people. There are some traditions that the two peoples have in common.... some common cultures and customs and … some linguistic connections between Hebrew and Igbo.” A literate Igbo man will speak of his ancestral origin, Israel.•

We had a great reunion in Las Vegas, and I wanted to give you a quick update on the reunion and those that were there.

It was really good to see everyone! Nikki Gettinger (003) 93–95 and I landed in Las vegas on Friday night and checked into the Paris hotel at midnight. Anisa Tootla (003) 93–95 came down and we had a late dinner after which we ran into Delene Rankin (003) 93–95 and her friend Yvette. We all stayed up until 4 a.m. chatting away and then stumbled into bed (seeing as how three of us were on East coast time). On saturday morning, we rallied all the troops, and Nancy Wright (002) 92–94, Sue Bisong (003) 93–95, her son Ismael, Anisa, Nikki and I went to breakfast. After which we all decided to hang out at the Paris Hotel pool. We found the Roberts (003) 93–95and Lucille Meyer (003) 93–95 joined when she arrived. Tom Tucker came in the afternoon from Boulder City. He decided to go AWOL from the trade show and so he stayed with us for the rest of the weekend in Las Vegas. We all ate dinner at PF Changs that night. (in honor of Lucille’s love of chinese food in Nigeria and some of us went on for drinks and conversation afterwards.
Sunday morning Nancy, Delene and Yvette left really early. Tom, Sue, Nikki and Lucille and I all had breakfast. Then we said our goodbyes to Lucille and Sue. The Roberts, Anisa, Nikki, Tom and Iwent on our trip to Hoover Dam that afternoon. That was a lot of fun (and hot). Then back to Vegas and said goodbye to the Roberts. Anisa, Tom, Nikki and I then went over to Lynda’s house to have a lovely and relaxed dinner, after which we went to the airport, and Tom drove back to California.
All in all I had probably about 12 hours sleep in Las Vegas but it was well worth it. We missed all of you who couldn’t be there do to pregnancies or being located overseas.

We never stopped talking all weekend. I haven’t laughed so much in a really long time. It was very good for the soul to see everyone, remember what we all survived and to see what paths everyone took after Nigeria. It was nice to get to know everyone in a context that wasn’t just Peace Corps. We all decided we needed to have another reunion in 5 years. So mark the calendars, for August 2009 for another reunion probably in San Fransisco.
We had some great stories and conversation. At every place we were, I noticed people around us were getting an earful and trying to listen to our conversation. You can only imagine what we were talking about. It was nice to be with a group that has seen you at your worst (and dirtiest) and who don’t wince when you discuss racy topics or bodily functions.

Here is what everyone else is doing now:

•Fred and Marguerite—they are living in Vermont and traveling a lot. This year in July they celebrate their 50th!!!! aniversary.
•Lucille—looking as hot as ever, she’s now working in the visitor center in Portland.
•Sue—she is a lawyer working in Albuquerque on enviromental and health issues.
•Nancy—a pediatrician in Las Vegas NM. She’ll be getting married in September.
•Tom—selling his beautiful jewelry at trade shows. Anisa, Nikki and I (and my friend Lynda), all bought a heap of stuff from him. His jewelry is amazing and very unique. He may soon be moving to Oakland
•Nikki—working for NIH in Maryland. Her husband was stationed in Iraq, but luckily he’s home for now.
•Anisa—working for AARP (this may be useful in the future :) and living in DC.
•Aswita—working at Brighman and Womens Hospital in Boston.
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JOURNEY BY MAMMY WAGON

We were so young. Perhaps too young and inexperienced to have that sensibility to understand our own experiences.
Plucked from my Bronx Irish family I was placed in the town of Bori, Ogoni, Eastern Nigeria; on a tarmac road that lead to Port Harcourt or the Calabar River. How do you absorb, learn, and understand a world so distant from St. Benedict’s parish in the Bronx? And why was I in an Ag Rd group? I know the Peace Corps said they could make BA generalists into anything, but this placement was not what I had expected!
Classroom discussions of Nigerian culture and history. Language classes in Igbo and pidgin. A day at a college farm in East Lansing to learn animal husbandry. There I was at Michigan State University with 70 other guys training to become an Agricultural and Rural Development Officer. Part of Nigeria XVI, the second Ag Rd group to go to Nigeria. It was 1965.
How do I, now 38 years later, measure that experience. Was it work mixed with Star beer, jolof rice, lasting friendships? Or learning how people with limited resources and skills looked for ways—looked to me to make their lives and their villages better. Or trying to explain why I had come from so far away to help them, and, no, I was not a priest like Fr. Gallaher. Was Nigeria a safe harbor while others, at home, were questioning our country’s role in the world? Like many RPCVs I have harbored a sense of guilt that my friends and co-workers in Bori gave me so much more then I could ever give to them. And still that debt goes unpaid.
The last months in Eastern Nigeria were shadowed by a looming civil war —road blocks with armed soldiers became common. Newspaper articles appeared daily, with Igbo spokesmen claiming their region’s wealth was being taken from them. But we were young. Americans. We had no fear of how a war could possibly affect us. Then the call came to pack and leave for Enugu immediately. War was imminent and we were no longer safe.
Our group had just about finished our two years. All our possessions, including gifts of thanks from friends and well-wishers had been sent ahead to Port Harcourt. (Not to be seen again.) So, we left; Ogoni to Enugu, passing multiple roadblocks with armed soldiers inspecting passengers and barking orders to drivers, and then on to Lagos. Most of my fellow volunteers headed off to Europe, while civil war began to ravage ‘our’ country. Was this the beginning of the spiral that resulted in massacres, famine, military dictatorships, increasing massive poverty and personal wealth? Of dashed hopes? It is hard to image the kind souls we knew being caught up in that constant chaos.

Which Nigeria do we carry with us today? If any. Has it shaped our consciousness? Would I have become involved in a series of careers related to community development and public health without these experiences? Experiences that seemed to say, “Anything is possible—but do not put all your hopes into expecting things will all change for the better. WAWA.

The Peace Corps may not have changed a country. It did change lives. It did affect me. As time becomes more precious. As I open the FON Newsletter, and turn to the back, and then am grateful if I do not see another name I remember from a time that is not lost.
I know that after those two years, I was no longer that kid from the Bronx. I was different and better. I have more recently understood the mark these experiences had on me. Profound? Hard to say. My life has been too ordinary too simple, to justify using a term like profound. A marker. A time that allowed me to understand choice. A time that has enabled me to see myself reflected in the friendships of others and realize I could do more. An enduring mark on a kid from the Bronx. And there is still time to deal with that guilt.
Pat O’Reilly is married to Margie Haynes O’Reilly (10) 64–66, and now work’s for a Federal welfare program in the state of Massachusetts.
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Your FON Board Of Directors

The two-year term of the current Board of Directors ends at the Annual General Meeting in Chicago this August. Our Nominating Committee under Vice President Frieda Fairburn set about to find 9 willing candidates. Its task was made slightly easier when 7 incumbents agreed to serve another term. A search of the membership completed the slate with the addition of Lucinda Boyd and Bob Perito. The outgoing Board was expanded to include them so that all the nominees will be experienced incumbents. The elections will take place at the Annual General Meeting in Chicago in August as provided in our by-laws but will be uncontested, as they often are in voluntary organizations to conserve resources: people willing to work.

Playing Bridge one night a week and being in charge of the Miami operations of the largest title insurance underwriter in the nation break up my commitment to Peace Corps related activities. I am still on the Board of the South Florida group, presently its Secretary, and head cheerleader for its champion adult co-ed softball team. (They have enough good young stuff for players.) Something at FON usually needs some attention. And there is my condo association. I was president for 8 ½ years, followed by my 10 year snit. I got over it and am now in my third term of the second reincarnation.

I am enjoying a busy retirement without an alarm clock. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of FON, I am secretary of Chautauqua Lake Partnership which hopes to deal with Eurasian milfoil on her lake and to help establish a lake management body to oversee the future health of our beautiful lake in western New York State.
While the above activities do have their fun moments, other entertainments for me include various activites at Chautauqua Institution, reading, traveling to visit old and new friends and throwing pots.

After teaching chemistry at an Iowa liberal arts college (Northwestern) for 30 years, I accepted early retirement in 1999 and followed my wife to Iowa City where she had found a position. Shortly thereafter the University of Iowa’s chemistry department contacted me and I accepted a half-time teaching position.
I am active in the campus chapter of the AAUP, the local chapter of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, and an ad hoc citizens group that is attempting to municipalize the local electric system.
Cathy Onyemelukwe and I were the co-founders of Friends of Nigeria in 1996.

Andy Philpot (VSO) 65–67, Newsletter Editor
Retirement continues to keep me busy—working once in a while and traveling on both sides of the Atlantic. In my spare time I continue to have fun editing the FON newsletter and take great delight in meeting up with old friends and new through the mass of correspondence that crosses my desk.
Trips to Washington in 2001 and 2002 for the 40 and 40+1 anniversary meetings have been highlights of the past years. However, last year’s meeting in Portland, allowed me to visit the Pacific North-West for the first time and have further adventures with my old mate Sugah-Mon (10). I am beginning to think like an RPCV.

Mike Goodkind (16) 65–67, Advocacy
I take pleasure in a variety of ongoing activities. Among these is freelance writing —I completed a magazine assignment in Haiti in 2002 and last year with two dietitians, I co-authored a book, Help! My Underwear is Shrinking. I really enjoy a part-time job with the city of Redwood City, coordinating a literacy computer lab. I do some PR consulting for local businesses and edit a
medical staff newsletter for Stanford to pay for my bad habits, including bike riding.
I truly enjoyed being re-submerged in the Peace Corps community during my first term on the board, including attending board meetings in Washington and Portland in the past three years.

David Strain (07) 63–66, Book Editor
In recent years I’d been cutting down my law practice, finally retiring in January 2002. Retirement has brought time for travel—Elizabeth and I built a trip around last year’s annual Peace Corps meeting in Portland, and I enjoyed enormously meeting new and old friends and being part of the 40+1 Peace Corps celebrations in Washington the summer before. I’ve also been able to do more sailing on San Francisco Bay, and to make a start on a bunch of repairs for our old house—25 years of deferred maintenance while our sons were growing up. Working on FON projects, Books for Africa and reviewing books for the newsletter has also been fun.

Virginia DeLancey (04) 62–64, Nigeria News
With many of my friends now retired, it’s fortunate that I thoroughly enjoy what I’m doing. Three years ago I moved to the Chicago area to work at Northwestern University. Last September, I moved across campus to become the Academic Coordinator of the Program of African Studies.
I am also a member of the Accra Committee of the Chicago Sisters Cities International Program, and of the Chicago Area Peace Corps Association (CAPCA) for which I am organizing the Country of Service Events for this summer’s NPCA conference. Finally, I have been writing the news section for the FON newsletter for the last couple of years—a great way to keep up to date on what is going on in Nigeria.

Robert (Bob) M. Perito (16) 65–67
After his Peace Corps service as a rural development officer based in Onitcha, Bob entered the United States Foreign Service, finally retiring in 1995 with the rank of Minister Counselor. During his time with the Foreign Service, Bob served in Bejiing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US mission to the United Nations in

Geneva. At the State Department, he served as Director of the Offices of Chinese Affairs, Southern African Affairs and Eastern European Affairs.
In 1992, he received a Presidential Meritorious Honor Award for leading the U.S. delegation to the successful Angola peace talks.
From 1988–1989 Bob served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Security Council and from 1983-1984, he was Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs at the Department of Commerce. In his last post at the State Department, as Director of the Office of International Criminal Justice, he was presented with Superior Honor Award for chairing the Administration’s Task Force on Combating Alien Smuggling
In 1995 Bob moved to the US Justice Department as deputy director of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, which under his leadership grew into a global law enforcement agency operating in over 70 countries.
Bob has taught at Princeton, American and George Mason Universities and is the author of The American Experience with Police in Peace Operations and Where is the Lone Ranger? America’s Search for a Post Conflict Stability Force.

Lucinda Boyd (05) 62–64
Boyd, a native of Illinois served her time with the Peace Corps in Nigeria, although she was initially set to go to Ghana. At the Government Girls Secondary School within the walls of old Kano, she lived in relative splendor with Mary Smith Clouse (05) 63–65. During her time in Nigeria she traveled around the country and also down the coast to the Congo and up the coast to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

After her Peace Corps tour ended, she began a personal odyssey traveling through Madagascar, South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania including a quick side trip up Mount Kilimanjaro before heading north to Ethiopia, Egypt and Israel. She finally returned to the United States after a few more weeks spent in Greece, Italy, Switzerland and Paris.
After a year of teaching grade 8, she became a medical social worker at the Cook County Hospital, Chicago’s massive health institution for the medically indigent. After graduate school in social work at Tulane University, New Orleans in 1972, she ended up working at the Illinois Psychiatric Institute, from which she retired in 1998.
Boyd’s interests lie in the areas of sacred choral music, geneology, anthropology and archaeology, world history, Peace Corps activities, maintaining friendships, family obligations and gardening at her Southern Pines Condo.