Peace Corps Family Tree: Part 2...The 60's

Great Uncle George Cooper

Peace Corps Volunteer

Malaysia 1966-1968

"Tens of thousands of Malaysians have never seen any

Americans other than these Volunteers, Their understanding

of Americans rests on two thin pillars: The synthetic

image of frequently rich, idle and somewhat scandalous

Americans portrayed in Hollywood movies, and the reality

of young Americans in their own backyard, living simply,

working hard, and being friendly toward all."

-Peace Corps Director James Gould

(taken from the Peace Corps Fiscal Year 1966 Congressional Presentation)

Uncle George with one of his colleagues

Volunteer Life:

Uncle George was stationed in the southern part of Malaysia in the state of Johor. He worked in the capital Johor Bahru at a secondary vocational school, Sekolah Menengah Vokeshenal. He taught technology classes, the big new technology being televisions. He was an electrician by trade and also taught in that field. When I spoke to my great aunt on the phone she told me that Uncle George taught "computer classes, electrician courses and at night enjoyed teaching and playing softball." She said he had a pretty good grasp on Malay the local language.

Uncle George in the background with two of his students

"Since achieving independence in 1957, Malaya, which

joined with Singapore and the Borneo states of Sabah and

Sarawak in 1963 to form the Federation of Malaysia, has

doubled its school system, established an entirely new

system of rural health facilities, doubled the amount of

land under irrigation, and made similar advances in many

other fields, The great emphasis is on developing the

rural areas which suffered most during the twelve-year

Communist emergency that followed the end of World War 11,

This expansion is being accomplished with remarkable

speed, but the nation is critically short of skilled man-

power to staff the expanded facilities. It is this need

that the Peace Corps is helping to fi l l until such time as

the new universities, teachers colleges, nursing schools,

technical institutions, and the educational system as a

whole can catch up with the demands for human skills that

have been created. "

-Peace Corps Director James Gould

(taken from the Peace Corps Fiscal Year 1966 Congressional Presentation)

Meeting my Aunt Christina:

My Uncle George was introduced to Yit (Christina) by her friend who was an occupational therapist. Yit was a clinical instructor for the nurses in a psychiatric hospital. George's time was almost up with the Peace Corps, so he decided to extend. The following year they married in Malaysia April 7th, 1969. When she got pregnant they decided to move back to the states, "landing in NY,NY February 1, 1970." Christina became an American citizen in 1973 choosing to give up rights to Malaysian citizenship. After a few years in the states she took the necessary steps to become certified in the states in the nursing field. She worked all over the US in psychiatric wards finally retiring in 2007. She was married to Uncle George for 34 years when he passed away in 2003. They have three children and have returned to Malaysia three times since leaving in the seventies (twice to see her mother and once to see her sister).

Peace Corps Volunteers hanging out...Uncle George is third from the left

Unfortunately I never met Great Uncle George. I didn't even know my dad had an uncle in the Peace Corps. It came up when getting contact info for my cousin that served! My mom tracked down his wife's number and after several phone conversations with my mom I got a call here in Belize from Great Aunt Christina! She's 81 and AWESOME! She finished high school in Malaysia then went to university in Singapor (by herself!) and furthered her education for three additional years in Scotland. She is fluent in Malay, Chinese (a few dialects) and English. So I broke the Peace Corps tradition of extending two years and marrying a national. But, as Mrs. Consuela said, "Greg is getting more Belizean every day!"

FYI:

Here's another interesting story of a group of Peace Corps Volunteers from Niger in 1966 five of which went back to revisit their sites in 2008. There is a movie, I haven't seen documenting their stories.

http://www.niger66.com/