"Pioneers" in The Talk of the Town

Sometimes I wonder where I was when all of these things were going on!  Paul Chantrey sent the photo below with a note that it was taken for a New Yorker article about our training group, but was not used in the article.  I have no recollection of that event, so I searched the New Yorker archives online.  It turned out to be a "Talk of the Town" item by Lillian Ross that ran in the June 30, 1962 issue.  A subscription is required to read the full text, but here is the abstract they provide:


Talk story about Harris L. Wofford, Jr. Special Representative for the Peace Corps for Africa. Writer met Mr. Wofford in front of the new local Peace Corps office, a store front on E. 42 St. and they drove to New Paltz, N.Y. to greet five dozen recent volunteers for the Teachers for Sierra Leone Peace Corps Project. Mr. W. had just resigned as Special Assistant to Pres. Kennedy on the Peace Corps & on Civil Rights. The recruits are to be trained at the State Univ. College in New Paltz. Mr. W. is moving, with his family, to Addis Abbaba, in August. In his new job he'll be administrator of the Ethiopian program as well as representative for Peace Corps work in all the other African nations. He's campaigning to recruit 300 teachers for the secondary schools of Ethiopa. Of the new, above-mentioned recruits it is hoped that 40 or 50 teachers will be sent to Sierra Leone. The Peace Corps is only a year old and they have 1000 volunteers working now, in 14 countries; minimum age 18; maximum age unlimited. They'll have 2000 in 27 countries by Sept. and 5000 in 1963. A program has been launched to recruit lawyers. The. No. 1 investment in Africa is in education. By doubling the secondary-school populations this year, they'll develop hundreds of college graduates qualified to teach school in Africa. Tells the names of some of the recruits in New Paltz and Mr. Wofford's welcoming speech.

Here is a link to the online abstract: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1962/06/30/1962_06_30_024_TNY_CARDS_000271246

Photo by New Yorker.  Shown are Margaret Berry, Judy Salisbury, Ed Berry, Mary Mullin, Paul Chantrey, and Anne Burdick