Interview with Melzer A. "Pat" Morgan Jr., August 16, 2023
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Melzer A. "Pat" Morgan, Jr. served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1962-64. For 6 months he served in a Forestry project in Jarabacoa and for the remainder of his time, near Santiago working with Dominican businessmen and local people helping set up a new residential agricultural high school where he later taught English and served as dorm counselor. He describes his first exposure to the northern U.S., meeting diverse Americans in Peace Corps training at the University of Washington and Camp Crozier in Puerto Rico and how training prepared him for service by teaching him flexibility. He discusses being inspired to serve by President Kennedy, U.S. interest in sending PCVs to the Dominican Republic, and the Dominican political context within which he served. He discusses the role Peace Corps service and the people he met played in his transformation from a small-town southern frat boy to a global citizen.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Peace Corps (US) Dominican Republic (Country of Service) Forestry (Peace Corps program) Education (Peace Corps program) 1962-64 (years of service as Peace Corps Volunteer) Camp Crozier (Outward Bound-type training site near Rio Abajo, Puerto Rico) Jarabacoa (town in the Central Mountains where he first served) Instituto Superior de Agricultura (residential vocational agricultural high school, now university (Universidad ISA), created with the support of Dominican business, the Alliance for Progress, Texas A & M and the Peace Corps) overthrow of Juan Bosch, first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic in 1963 (historical context) Fourteenth of June Movement (historical context).Interview Rights
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Morgan, Melzer A., Jr. Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 16 Aug. 2023. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Morgan, M.A., Jr. (2023, August 16). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Morgan, Melzer A., Jr., interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. August 16, 2023, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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