It’s his love of adventure and experiencing different cultures that keeps steering Richard Strauss to the Peace Corps. The first time he joined was in 1969. He was 22 and straight out of college.

Now retired, the 64-year-old headed for the Philippines in July for his third tour of service with the Peace Corps. He served in Venezuela and Colombia on his previous volunteer trips.

“I believe in what the Peace Corps does around the world and I wanted to be part of that again,” Strauss said. “Being a Peace Corps volunteer will be a rewarding way to spend a part of my retirement years.”

Strauss admitted that at this stage in his life, he hadn’t planned on getting back into the Peace Corps. But after his wife died in 2008, he decided to reapply.

“I’m in good health, so that’s a plus, and they tell me with age comes experience,” he said.

His career was dedicated to international marketing and sales. This time in the corps, Strauss will be teaching English as a second language. He thought he might be the only person over 50 headed for the Philippines, but learned on Facebook that two other volunteers are in their 50s. Seven percent of Peace Corps volunteers are 50 or older, according to the agency.

Strauss said Peace Corps assignments are handed out based on volunteers’ skills and how they match the needs of the host country. He is fluent in Spanish and received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American studies, graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“I was born in Yonkers, outside New York (City), raised in Connecticut and had never been west of New Jersey,” he said. “I only knew the East Coast, so I wanted to go somewhere west, somewhere I had never been before.”

Even then, he had a thirst to travel places outside his comfort zone. After Venezuela, he went back to New York to pursue a master’s degree in international marketing. He wanted a job that would allow him to travel abroad.

While in New York, he looked up a woman he had met in a foreign exchange program at Indiana University, where she was a student. Her parents lived in New York. They clicked.

“Sandra was beautiful and bright. We both had the same majors and both enjoyed international travel. She was an overseas flight attendant for TWA and also spoke Spanish,” he said. “We were even born within six hours of each other ... but on different days.”

U.S. Peace Corps serves 76 countries

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew a federal government agency devoted to world peace and friendship.

Volunteers serve

in 76 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East.

Volunteers live, learn and work

with a community overseas for 27 months, providing technical assistance in six program areas: education, youth and community development, health, business and information and communications technology, agriculture and environment.

For more information,

visit

.

(Source: www.peacecorps.gov

.)

A family of volunteers

When they married, it was no surprise that she joined the Peace Corps, too. They were accepted in 1974 and were assigned to Colombia. He worked in business development, helping a government agency give small loans to local businesses and farmers. His wife worked with local orphanages.

They were not able to complete their full tour of service because she was pregnant. Their son, Josh, who grew up in Kent, Ohio, followed in his parents’ footsteps. He joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Ukraine from 2000 to 2003 as an English teacher.

“I was very proud when my son entered the Peace Corps as a second-generation volunteer,” Strauss said. “It was his decision to apply, but his mother and I were very happy that he did.”

Strauss said he likes to think his son completed the tour his mom and dad cut short because of the pregnancy.

“It is a very different experience but very rewarding,” Josh Strauss said. “I think it was always in the back of my dad’s mind that he would do it again if he could. I am very happy for him. I’m already looking into airline prices to go visit him.”

He described his father as intelligent, stoic, persistent and inquisitive — someone who enjoys travel and meeting people. Those are all qualities that make him a good fit for the Peace Corps — something he knows, because he also was a Peace Corps recruiter for several years.

Richard Strauss also has two adult daughters, one adopted from Colombia after the Strausses served there.

Strauss said this assignment will be far different from his first. In Venezuela, he helped build a school. He also had to learn how to kill chickens, then teach those skills to others.

This time he will be going to an urban area.

“Two years of service isn’t a long commitment, and rural assignments are easy to do when you are in your 20s, but not so much in your 60s,” he said.

(From McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.)

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