Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-002
James (Jim) Herberger served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 as an insect specialist. He had recently graduated with a bachelors of science in entomology. He joined alongside his wife Judy, a social worker. Herberger trained at Arizona State University in Tempe, and discusses the overall young age of the trainees and the high attrition rate. In Bolivia, he worked at an agricultural experiment station in the town of General Saavedra, outside of Santa Cruz, which felt like a frontier area. He describes how he and his friends built a raft and took a trip down various rivers to the city of Trinidad. Herberger also shares his thoughts on what the Peace Corps meant to him, other young people, and Bolivians. After returning to the U.S., he earned a PhD and became a expert in weeds and weed control, including co-writing three scientific books that led to the development of quarantine protocols for exotic species. Interview by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 23, 2009. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).