As Peace Corps pioneers, Craig and her group came in contact with a number of its legendary founders. During training at Notre Dame, she became acquainted with a friend of Kennedy's, The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, who was Notre Dame's president from 1952 to 1987. Hesburgh served as an important mentor to the program's first volunteers. Sargent Shriver, who was the Corps' director until February 1966, was a frequent "drop-in guest" while she was in Chile. Among Craig's most prized possessions are several framed letters from President Kennedy. One written April 3, 1962, at the behest of Hesburgh and hand-delivered by him to each volunteer on their first Easter in Chile, reads: "Dear Professor Craig, I have heard fine things about the Peace Corps in Chile. Keep up the good work. Success in your work for the Chilean people will bring credit to you and to our country. Happy Easter! Sincerely, John Kennedy."
September 1961, Mary Ellen Craig, a recent graduate of Purdue University's School of Home Economics, was about to set off on one of the most memorable experiences of her life. Her destination was the central valley of Chile, where the 29 men and 16 women would spend the next two years working in the countryside with the Instituto de Educacion Rural.
Area Peace Corps veterans to celebrate 50-year anniversary
by Janet Rems | Special to The Times
In September 1961, Mary Ellen Craig, a recent graduate of Purdue University's School of Home Economics, was about to set off on one of the most memorable experiences of her life.
She and 44 other new Peace Corps volunteers, most of them recruited from Indiana colleges, were about to set sail from New York City on the Grace Line ship, the Santi Isabel. Their destination was the central valley of Chile, where the 29 men and 16 women would spend the next two years working in the countryside with the Instituto de Educacion Rural.
They were the first volunteers trained and sent into the field after President John F. Kennedy signed the executive order formally establishing the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961.
"That was before the Peace Corps was the Peace Corps. ... We had no model for what we were going to do," said Craig, a longtime Reston resident, who will be joining other area Peace Corps volunteers at a special celebration of the Corps' 50th anniversary April 8 at Reston's Nature House.
Special guest will be Peace Corps director Aaron Williams, also a longtime Reston resident, who volunteered in the Dominican Republic for the corps from 1967 to 1970, starting when he was 20. Williams said in an email he will speak about how the Corps "represents an American legacy of public service."
"Peace Corps volunteers provide sustainable solutions by sharing America's most precious resource - its people," he wrote.
In Chile
For Craig, her experience as one of the Peace Corps' first group of volunteers remains not only vivid but also seminal, even 50 years later.
"The Peace Corps set me on my life path. ... I found who I was down there. ... It was the two most remembered years of my life," said Craig, who trained institute students or "delegados" (delegated ones) in healthy food preparation and sanitation and did all the marketing for student meals.
Her time in Chile came about a year after the nation suffered a devastating earthquake, and Craig and her fellow volunteers focused on teaching skills to community leaders that would allow the region's "campesinos" to stay on the farms rather than move to city slums.
As Peace Corps pioneers, Craig and her group came in contact with a number of its legendary founders. During training at Notre Dame, she became acquainted with a friend of Kennedy's, The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, who was Notre Dame's president from 1952 to 1987. Hesburgh served as an important mentor to the program's first volunteers. Sargent Shriver, who was the Corps' director until February 1966, was a frequent "drop-in guest" while she was in Chile.
Among Craig's most prized possessions are several framed letters from President Kennedy. One written April 3, 1962, at the behest of Hesburgh and hand-delivered by him to each volunteer on their first Easter in Chile, reads: "Dear Professor Craig, I have heard fine things about the Peace Corps in Chile. Keep up the good work. Success in your work for the Chilean people will bring credit to you and to our country. Happy Easter! Sincerely, John Kennedy."
Craig, 72, later went on to become dean of women at Ohio's Dennison University and after that returned to the Peace Corps working in the Division of Volunteer Support Services.
