Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-071
Russell E. Morgan Jr. served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1966 to 1969 as a secondary school teacher. He trained at Columbia University Teachers College in New York City. In Kenya, he was stationed for a short time in Kitui, then moved to the Marsabit Boys Secondary School in the Northern Frontier District (NFD) near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia. This school got substantial funding from the Kenyan government in a political move to demonstrate the benefits of Kenyan rule over the district. Morgan discusses his success in preparing nomadic children for the British Cambridge exams in biology, chemistry, and physics, and touches on the outcomes for some of his students. One of them became a surgeon and was named Chairman of the Board of the Kenyan Red Cross Society and was awarded the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) in 2014. Morgan also discusses his travels to other countries, the broadening impact of his Peace Corps experience, and his subsequent career with global preventative health organizations. He continues to contribute by leading the 2014 Ebola Relief Fund of the NPCA; co-founding the Friends of Kenya group and Encore (later merged with Peace Corps Response); and serving as a member of the Advisory Board of the NPCA Community Fund. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 20, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).