Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-059
Philip Lilienthal served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia from 1965 to 1967 as a legal advisor, then as Peace Corps staff from 1969 to 1974 in several different positions. He served alongside his wife in Ethiopia and worked as a legal advisor for government agencies. He also started a youth summer camp in response to a request by the emperor's granddaughter, who was interested in breaking down ethnic barriers. This experience and his work running a summer camp in the U.S. later led him to create Global Camps Africa, which operates in South Africa. From 1969 to 1972, Lilienthal worked at Peace Corps headquarters in the General Counsel's office as an Attorney-Advisor, where among other issues, he dealt with free speech related to volunteer protests against the Vietnam War, and the proposed consolidation of Peace Corps into the umbrella volunteer ACTION agency. Next Lilienthal served as Peace Corps Regional Director for Mindanao, Philippines, from 1972 to 1973, then Deputy Peace Corps Director for Thailand from 1973 to 1974. In these posts, he gained a perspective of the other side of the conflict between the central office and the field. In 2013, Lilienthal was awarded the National Peace Corps Association's Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service for his contributions to humanitarian causes at home and abroad. Interviewed by Evelyn Ganzglass, January 7, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).