March 3, 1968 - Dayton Daily News: RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Mark Raymaker who died while serving in Tanzania in March, 1968
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March 3, 1968 - Dayton Daily News: RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Mark Raymaker who died while serving in Tanzania in March, 1968
RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Mark Raymaker who died while serving in Tanzania in March, 1968
Mark Raymaker served in Tanzania and died in March, 1968. The cause of death was deemed to be Unknown cause. Returned Volunteers remember Mark Raymaker and leave their condolences to family and friends. Read the obituary and if you knew Mark Raymaker leave your memories and remembrances below at:
Mark Raymaker served in Tanzania and died in March, 1968. *
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Mark Raymaker served in Tanzania and died in March, 1968.
The cause of death was deemed to be Unknown cause.
Mark Raymaker (M)
Died: 03/03/68
Age:
Serving in: Tanzania
Died in: Tanzania
Cause of Death: eaten by lion:
Cause of death category: unknown cause
Notes: No record. Note pc/w - PCV presumed eatened by lions. PCV seen in area w/lions. Lion(s) spotted at same time. Witness left to get gun/help. Lion and PCV gone on return.
For the Peace Corps Fallen
Read and comment on this article written by Swaziland RPCV Jack Conrad on the Memorial Service for the 254 Peace Corps Volunteers who have died in service held at Arlington Cemetery on June 23, 2002 at:
For the Peace Corps Fallen*
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
For the Peace Corps Fallen
This past Sunday was sunny and steamy hot in Washington, D.C. In the morning, hundreds of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers assembled beside the Lincoln Memorial. There they distributed among themselves flags from each of the countries in which the Peace Corps has served - 135 in all. They then marched, led by the flag bearers, in reverent tribute across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery. At the cemetery they mounted the large hill before them, veering to the right in order to pay their respects to the agency's founder, at the grave of President John F. Kennedy. Then they continued on to the top of the hill and the amphitheater beside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That's where the remembrance ceremony began.
A quartet of Washington, D.C. police officers, called "Prophecy," started the commemoration with gospel music. Then Pat Reilly, President of the National Peace Corps Association Board, stood at the podium, recalling her first encounter with the Peace Corps ("You can't send me to Sierra Leone. I don't speak Spanish! Besides, I wanted to go to Africa!"). Following the assembled volunteers' singing of America the Beautiful, a Rabbi and an Imam shared their prayers with the audience, prayers for the work of the Peace Corps, prayers for Peace. Pat Reilly returned to the stage to share a poem dedicated to those volunteers who gave their lives during their service. Presented below, it packed a punch. Then an unscheduled guest took the stage, newly confirmed Peace Corps Director, Gaddy Vasquez. He shared his brief remarks about the organization, its heightened importance, and again, reverence for those who never returned from their assignments - 254 individuals in all. He disclosed that he thinks about them every day---upon entering and leaving the Peace Corps Office---as there is a large panel with the names of the departed just beside the entrance ...
Next Congressman Christopher Shays from Connecticut (RPCV, Fiji) took the stage, striking just the right note when he asserted that "We walked their paths, rode their buses, bathed in their pools and spoke their languages ... We came home different and with a greater appreciation of our country."
A few other speakers followed, Michelle Forman, the national teacher of the year (RPCV, Nepal), Harris Wofford, instrumental in the founding of the Peace Corps, later a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, and more recently a Clinton Administration task force member, and lastly the coordinator of the conference, Cori Welbourn Bassett (RPCV, Sri Lanka).
The ceremony ended with a final procession of the flags ...
I was honored to have the chance to depart the amphitheater carrying the flag of Swaziland. As I did, I thought about the five Swaziland PCVs who never returned from their service alive.
(1) Frederick A. Schwartz (1970)
(2) Janis Hyatt (1981)
(3) Brenda Crawford (1988)
(4) Juanita Quiton (1988)
(5) Laura Stedman (1996)
I *believe* I met Brenda and Juanita before I left Swaziland in 1987. They would have been among the latest trainees. I heard later, when I was teaching in West Africa in '88, that they had died in an auto accident, while traveling from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe, somewhere on the road between the two.
It would be interesting to hear about the personalities of these five volunteers and more about the circumstances behind their deaths. Did any of you know them?
For the Peace Corps Fallen
We who left you
Before our time
May return if you reach back
And carry a world
With us
Within you.
Let our monument
Be the mark you make
In the life you lead of peace and purpose.
Do, so that we may do
Act, so that we may act
Live, so that we may live
Again, through you.
---by Donald Maclean
Salani kahle, Bonkhosi,
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Tanzania; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Obituaries; Volunteer Fatalities: Unknown cause
PCOL9115
61
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Mark Raymaker could not have died in March of 1968 in Tanzania. I was in the Peace Corps in Tanzania and actually working on the same immunization project during a school break when Mark disappeared. My tour of duty was 1965 to 1967.
You're absolutely correct. He went missing in August of 1967. August 9th at 1:00 pm near Dodoma.
He was with a party of 5 people who went ahead of the main group which you were in. I've talked to 2 people who were with him that day, which was really enlightening. He was set to finish his tour in Dec 67.
The bit about the lions being seen in the area is fabricated, unfortunately. He was with a few guys half-heartedly hunting gazelles on an very hot afternoon . The locals hunted pigs in the area. When he didn't return that afternoon ,the other people in the party(3 men and a woman)left for the night. They didn't return until the next afternoon, and didn't think it serious enough to call for help until the next day... almost 48 hours after he was last seen.
So much for the prowling lions.
I would like to contact Chris Raymaker. I was in the group of five who set out, with his brother, Mark, on the WHO project to vaccinate the Maasai against smallpox in August 1967
Mark was the hunter in our group who was to have brought in fresh meat as were were going to be in the bush for a month and otherwise living on tinned food.
Mark set off the first afternoon to hunt, waved a white handkerchief from the edge of the forest and disappeared into the trees. Although we lit huge watch fires all night and went to call & search for him there was no sign.
There is more I would like to write if I knew Mark's brother, Chris, would like to know, but the email address I have for him doesnt connect. I was an English volunteer with VSO teaching in Tanzania at the time.
Yours sincerely, Robin Dulake (Mrs)