Prentice LarRieu Sack, Friend of the Peace Corps, dies at 77



When her husband, Paul, became director of the Peace Corps program in Tanzania, she moved to its capital city of Dar es Salaam with him, their four children, and two basset hounds. In Tanzania, she established a crafts shop for the Tanzania Women's Union (Umoja wa Wanawake) to sell items made by up-country women to tourists visiting the capital. She also taught literacy, in Swahili, to adult men.

Prentice LarRieu Sack, Friend of the Peace Corps, dies at 77

SACK, Prentice LarRieu

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Prentice LarRieu Sack was an enthusiastic sailor, hiker, birder, world traveler, voracious reader, mother, wife, grandmother. She died at age 77 in her home in San Francisco on January 25, 2006. She grew up in Walnut Creek when its population was less than 800 persons and rode horses over much of the land now occupied by tracts of homes. She was in one of the first classes at the Walnut Creek Grammar School, attended Acalanes High School, and graduated from the Anna Head School, where she was president of the student body.

A member of the Wellesley College class of 1950, she was president of the college radio station and was founder of Wellesley's Young Republican Club, although she later became a Democrat. At Wellesley, she would have been an English major but took more English courses than were allowed of its majors by the English Department, so reregistered in Political Science. Her world travels started with the Experiment in International Living in Normandy, where Paul followed to court her, and a six month honeymoon driving across Europe in 1951.

When her husband, Paul, became director of the Peace Corps program in Tanzania, she moved to its capital city of Dar es Salaam with him, their four children, and two basset hounds. In Tanzania, she established a crafts shop for the Tanzania Women's Union (Umoja wa Wanawake) to sell items made by up-country women to tourists visiting the capital. She also taught literacy, in Swahili, to adult men.

She traveled widely in Western Europe, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of the South Pacific, Indonesia, and more than 25 of the nations of Africa-some of them several times. In November, 2005, she made her sixth trip to India, this time to attend the Pushkar Camel Fair. She has been sailing on San Francisco Bay on Wednesdays for four decades with the Seagals, a group of women of whom she was a founding member.

With her husband, she has sailed in chartered sailboats in the Greek islands, along the coasts of Turkey and Yugoslavia, in New Zealand, Tonga, and on the boat of friends around almost all the coasts of Europe. She has been a member of the boards of the San Francisco Visitors Center and International House at Berkeley, and supported the visual and performing arts in San Francisco.

At Enterprise for High School Students and Lincoln High School, she worked to promote jobs for high school students.

She is survived by her husband Paul; her brother Barry LarRieu; four children: Dana Sack of Piedmont, CA; Kirby Sack of San Francisco; Tyler Sack of Alameda, and Todd Sack of Jacksonville, FL; their spouses and partners and seven grandchildren, the five Chukwudebes who joined the family, and two basset hounds, Sophie and Nikki. A celebration of her life will take place in several weeks. No flowers; donations may be made to a charity of your choice. Everyone who knew her loved her.

When this story was posted in February 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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