Tell me about yourselves!
Lyn is originally from Rochester, NY and John grew up in W Babylon, Long Island, NY. After graduation from St Bonaventure University we got jobs in Michigan. Lyn parlayed her physics degree into a fancy engineering job at Ford Motor Company and John used his BA in Journalism to get a reporting gig on a suburban Detroit daily. In November 1970 we left for training with Liberia Group 23 and spent about two months in St Croix, US VI.
What is your connection to Liberia?
We taught at Voinjama High School from Jan 1971 to June 1973 when we were evacuated in the middle of our 3rd (extended) year due to John’s dad requesting our return. He was terminally ill and died 6 weeks later. Lyn was pregnant and we were not allowed to return to our PC jobs. In 1987 we returned for a month with our two sons, then aged 13 & 7, and spent two and a half weeks in Lofa County and a week in the interior of the Gambia with a Peace Corps Volunteer we knew from Schenectady, where we have lived since 1976. John was a member of the 1997 FOL Election monitoring team and we both returned to Liberia in 2011 as volunteers with the Clinton Health Access Initiative whose director, Dr. Moses Massaquoi, is one of those lifelong friends from the early 70s.
What is your favorite memory and/ or something you are most proud of from your time there?
The whole experience was life-changing. It was our first graduate degree and it led to lifelong friendships with Liberians and several of our Group 23 friends . We lived there, and laughed and cried with our community. We loved teaching, learning Loma and eating palm butter. Despite malaria, and a bit of dysentery, we were very happy there and our hearts never really left. Lyn never returned to engineering. She got an MSW and ran programs for the elderly, and then in her 40s returned to school to become a family practice Physician Assistant, which she still does on an as needed basis for her old practice. John never returned to newspapers, but ran a Boys & Girls Club before getting a MS in Human Services Administration, and spending 25 plus years at a community college running grants and workforce development programs.
The whole experience was life-changing. It was our first graduate degree and it led to lifelong friendships with Liberians and several of our Group 23 friends . We lived there, and laughed and cried with our community. We loved teaching, learning Loma and eating palm butter. Despite malaria, and a bit of dysentery, we were very happy there and our hearts never really left. Lyn never returned to engineering. She got an MSW and ran programs for the elderly, and then in her 40s returned to school to become a family practice Physician Assistant, which she still does on an as needed basis for her old practice. John never returned to newspapers, but ran a Boys & Girls Club before getting a MS in Human Services Administration, and spending 25 plus years at a community college running grants and workforce development programs.
What is your involvement with Friends of Liberia?
John served as a board member from 91 to c. 2004 and Board President in the late 90s for 2-3 years.
Why did you decide to donate to FOL and this program?
We have always tried to send donations as we can, but we also do independent work in Liberia through a local church that runs programs outside of Paynesville. About 10 years ago we became chairs of those projects and in 2016 & 2018 we spent several weeks back there. We do fundraising for the church and have hired a former student of ours to oversee expenditures and keep an eye on things.
What do you wish other people knew about Liberia?
The genuine warmth which so many Liberians have for all things American, and their gratitude for what America has done for them in the past. Despite disappointments that the USA did not do more to initially intervene in the 14+ years of civil war. Liberians still know what America means to them. War and Ebola really affected Liberia but it is so resilient, and such an overall great group of folks.