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exPCV & Staff News |
updated:
07-Apr-08 |
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4 April 08 |
Passing of Bento Lobo
Bento Machado Lobo, 78, former PC/Brazil
Regional Director for RS, SC & PR (1971/1973) passed away on Feb. 5,
2008 from a respiratory arrest.
His death was reported in many websites:
>
http://www.rdnews.com.br/noticia.php?cod=5535
>
http://www.diarionews.com.br/exibenoticia.php?id=33843
(added April 5,
2008)
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23 Feb 08 |
Passing of Jonas
Pinheiro
Jonas died earlier this week in Cuiabá as the result of a heart attack.
Although he rose from the humblest of rural beginnings to become State
Secretary of Agriculture, Federal Deputy, and then Senator, he is best
remembered by members of our training group as the delightful, funny,
energetic young rural extension agent who came to Longmont, CO in 1970 to
train us in Portuguese and the realities of Brazilian agriculture. One of
my fond memories of Jonas is seeing him practically in tears of laughter as
he recounted visiting Boulder, and seeing the initials of Colorado
University painted on a mountainside. Jonas had an enormous and infectious
capacity for enjoying life. His obituary can be found at the following
link.
http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2008/02/20/jonas_pinheiro_enterrado_em_mato_grosso-425740298.asp
Art Muirhead
MT 70-73
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05 Jan 08 |
Steven Alexander Publishes Book - Santarem Riverboat
Town
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3 Oct 07 |
Ken "Paulo" Raeder (MT 68-72) Training Group WI July 68
Dear Friends,
This is Jackie Raeder-Hydock, Ken's daughter. I wanted to inform all of you who kept in touch with my father over the years that he passed away last night. It is a very difficult time for my family and I as he will be missed. We have arranged his funeral and we hope that you can spread the word and attend. As I went through his email address book he had made many comments about who was good to him and who he felt was a good friend and how you connected with him. It meant so much to me to read what he had written about each and every one of you.
We are holding a wake on Sunday, October 7th at the Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home from 5-9 PM. A Catholic mass will be held at the Church of the Nativity in Burke, Virginia at 10:00 AM Monday, October 8th with a burial to follow at 11:30 AM at the Fairfax Memorial Park.
Please feel free to write back to this email address if you would like additional details. I will be checking his email often.
God Bless,
Jackie
KPRAEDER@aol.com |
15 Dec 06 |
Jack Tuttlebee (PB 64-66) Training Group WI Sept 64
Very sorry to announce that my husband, Jack, passed away in Brooklyn on Dec. 20, 2006. We had just moved there in August from Venezuela and previously from St. Petersburg, FL. Jack always reminisced about his stay in Brazil and still spoke fluent Portuguese, always like a native Brazilian, as he would proudly say. I only had 6 short years with him. He was my soul mate and I miss him terribly.
Gilda Tuttlebee |
10 July 05 |
John Milton Taber
Sadly I report the death of John Milton Taber on July 10, 2005. John served as a PCV in the State of Goias. He died in Curitiba PR and is survived by his wife Josil of Curitiba and Jon of Des Moines. The family can be contacted in the US at 515-280-1615 Tom Pollard
MT 72-75 |
Jan 07, 05 |
Steve Grossman passed away 7 Jan, 2005.
Remembering Steve
As many of you know, Steve Grossman, who was a regular contributor to this list, passed away on January 7. Some of you knew Steve in person and know that he was a unique human being. And though there are many who knew him better than I did, he was my friend for 40 years. It would seem fitting at this moment to share a few memories of Steve.
Steve and I, along with some others on this list as well as those I’ve copied, first met for Peace Corps training at Sandanona (Experiment in International Living) in Brattleboro, Vermont in the fall of 1964. This was Brazil XVI.
Although people do seem to change through time, I don’t recall Steve changing very much since those enthusiastic days of 40-plus years ago. His friendly nature, kindness, interest in politics, sports and literature, Brooklynite pride, and fondness for imbibing with friends lasted a lifetime.
By some stroke of luck, today back here in Brazil, I came across a Brazil XVI ten-year reunion bio write-up. It includes the mini-bios from 1964 and updates from everyone in 1974. Here are some revealing excerpts.
From 1964: “23 [age] – 1938 68th Street, Brooklyn, New York. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut on November 17, 1940, and graduated from New Utrecht High School in 1960. [Aside: Steve always insisted that he was younger than me and I always denied it. But indeed he was by nine months.] With a major in geology and a minor in education, he received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1964.
From 1974: [As a PCV Steve taught geology at the university in Curitiba.] “After leaving first Curitiba and later Rio in December of ’66 I returned to the Ghetto from whence I came. There I stayed for six months doing essentially nothing but eating corned beef sandwiches, and explaining saudades to people who didn’t know what the hell I was saying.
That summer (’67) I went off to graduate school at Bull [sic] State University in Muncie, Indiana where I took an M.A. in geography and received a post graduate fellowship in intensive beer drinking as an urban CA activity. I received good grades in all of these study areas.”
[Covering 1968 to 1973, Steve goes on to describe a variety of geographer and cartographer jobs, a brief return to Brazil, a marriage that was to last about four years, and three months spent in Europe.] “In February ’73, my checks were running out, so I managed to arrange a temporary job with Peace Corps. [I believe I assisted with this in my role as Chief of the PC generalist placement desk at the time.] My intention was to return to graduate school in the fall---I had just been accepted---but I was reinvigorated with the Peace Corps spirit just being around Peace Corps Washington. By July, I was offered a position as Desk Officer for Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. This job was not boring. ………….”
“The most amazing thing about the last eight years for me is living [in 1974] with Olsen [John], Joslin [Jan], and Mastrangelo [Vito]. You’d think three months at Sandanona would be enough. Paz y libertade.” [Without a doubt the bantering that would go on between Steve and these three friends is something I will always fondly remember.]
Steve loved those years as Peace Corps staff, some parts of which were in-country. I overlapped with him for about a year and I believe we spent a fair amount of time after work at the Farragut Lounge and Chez Francois near the Peace Corps building at 808 Connecticut Avenue. Ah-h-h-h, those were the days!
For the next ten years I saw Steve off and on at parties and for dinner at a Cuban restaurant called Omega and later at a Brazilian restaurant called at the time, I believe, Dona Flor. My wife Henriqueta and I moved back to Brazil in 1981, and upon my return, semi-destitute, in 1984, Steve---who had bought a house in Alexandria, Virginia---offered a room to me. I believe I was there for about one year (!) and Steve never asked me to pay him one cent. And from that year I not only remember Steve’s generosity, but also just how pleasant it was to be around him. He had a wonderful sense of humor. Once we were making black beans, and I can still hear him saying in mock horror, making fun of the American reaction to some things Brazilian, “Oh, they’re So BLACK!!!”
Steve later spent some years working as a cartographer for Department of Defense (for which his friends gave him a hard time), but I believe he returned to Peace Corps again at the end of his career. He retired at age 50 and later bought a home near Bethany Beach, Delaware. I did not see Steve as often after that, but I did spend a weekend with him at his place in the summer of 2003. He was still the same old Steve, and he seemed very content living there and with, as usual, many new friends. Of course he still had his rituals, one of which was a nap at about 5 p.m. which then allowed him to go full strength into the night whereas many 60+ people such as myself conk out at about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m.---on our good days.
It was during these past few years that he became more active on the Internet. He also tried to go back to New York whenever he could, especially during the Brazilian Independence-Day celebration and at the always-open invitation of Joan Boyle (who also trained with us at Sandanona). From some of his messages to this expcv Brazil list, many of you may have picked up on just how badly Steve wanted to go back to Brazil and especially visit Salvador where he had spent some time in 1968. He always hesitated, probably fearful in part because of all the reports of crime.
But Steve deeply loved Brazil and his memories of Brazil. And so last month he went. He had wanted to meet up with me in Ipanema during the first couple days of January but I could not make it. I don’t even know if in fact he ever made it to Rio; he may have gotten ill before he could get there. But the friend of his in Delaware who notified us of his passing wrote: “Just know that he got to visit his beloved Brazil one last time and was so very proud that he could still speak Portuguese so well.”
Maybe Steve should not have returned to Brazil as he was not in the best of health. And yet, and yet, he wanted so much to return again. Life is finite after all, and for me it would have been worse if he had died without fulfilling his dream of going back once more.
From the messages I have seen since Steve’s passing, including reports from Joan Boyle who attended the Jewish burial service on January 9 in Dover, Delaware, three things stand out. One, that Steve had SO many friends, both new and old (including many cyber-friends I’m told). If friends are riches, Steve was one of the richest persons I have ever known. Two, that everyone knew him as being a good, gentle, and sweet man. And lastly, that a piece of the lives of us who were Steve’s friends is gone forever. If we cry, we cry for ourselves.
Keith Hewitt
ES - 1964-67
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Mar 04 |
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Oct 04 |
To all
members of the Peace Corps Brazil family
I am writing
to let you know that Dr. Quino E. Martinez passed away on Sept. 30,
2002. Dr. Martinez served in Recife from 1962 -1964 as Peace Corps
representative for north east Brazil. During his tenure in Recife, Dr
Martinez met with governors and officials from the Northeastern states
in order to set up programs. Among people that Dr. Martinez had contact
with during those times in official as well informal capacity were
people such as Dom Helder Camara, Miguel Arraes, Francisco Juliao and
others.
He was a man
who never lost the idealism that motivated his association with the
Peace Corps.
Abraços
tristes,
Louis Martinez |
Feb 02 |
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Aug |
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July |
Tom Xerri and Gerald Simnacher (SC 64-66) will be visiting SC and Rio. They will be at the Hotel Florida June 29 and meeting two other exPCVs who live in Brazil. Drop by if you are in Rio. Bob Crites (MT/ES 64-66) and wife Dalva, visited Recife, Rio, Goiania, and SP.
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Jan 03 |
Charles L. Wright Economist
Charles L. Wright, 57, a senior economist and transportation specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank who directed projects to streamline transportation services in Latin American cities, died of cancer Jan. 9 at Georgetown University Hospital.
Dr. Wright worked for the bank for the past 10 years and wrote or edited many of the bank's series of books and technical papers on urban transportation and traffic safety. Among his books is "Fast Wheels, Slow Traffic: Urban Transport Choices." Earlier, he was a senior economist of the Brazilian Transportation Planning Agency and an associate professor of economics at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. He came to Washington in 1992 to serve as a consultant to the National Ports and Waterways Institute in Washington. Dr. Wright, a Rockville resident, was a native of Marcellus, Mich., and a history graduate of the University of Michigan. He received a master's degree in economics from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a doctorate in economics from Ohio State University. In 1990, he was an economics fellow at the University of Michigan. He was a member of St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Potomac. Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Maria da Gloria M. Wright of Potomac; four children, Denison M. and Alan M., both of Rockville, and Marcelo M. and Elisson M., both of New York; his mother, Genevieve Elizabeth Wright of Marcellus; two brothers; and a sister.
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June 03 |
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