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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-122
Richard (Dick) Wood served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1964 to 1966 on a community development project. He had studied philosophy and engineering at Yale. His training was with an all-male group, Iran 5, first in Utah and then for a week in the agricultural college outside of Tehran. Wood was stationed in Sari in the province of Mazandaran. He and a friend were placed with a government community development firm that went around the province gathering information about what the people in villages needed, surveying, and drawing up proposals. Wood describes the warmth of the Iranian people and how his worldview expanded. He often talked with locals about American foreign policy and other matters. After the Peace Corps, Wood traveled with friends before returning to the U.S. to enter graduate school in Middle Eastern studies. He continued to work in the Middle East for several years. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, July 16, 2019. 1 digital audio file.