Interview with Raymond Gray, August 23, 2023

Interview Summary

Raymond Gray served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic,1962-1964, in a school construction program. Born during WWII, he was raised in a Pennsylvania family of coal miners and steelworkers. Ray was a sophomore at Muskingum College when he heard President Kennedy’s speech about a different kind of service to the US. He applied to the Peace Corps and was accepted for a school-building project. Training in construction happened at Rainier National Park, survival skills in Puerto Rico, and Spanish language throughout. Ray worked with the community of Clavellina, near Dajabon, to build a two-room schoolhouse. Upon returning to the US he completed his BA in Anthropology at Temple University and MDiv. at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has enjoyed a long career telling stories to more than a million school children. Presently he is creating stories about his “Personal Myth!

Interview Keyword

WW2 Pennsylvania Hunting Military President Kennedy Muskingum College, OH Peace Corps Coal miners Steel Industry Midland, PA Multicultural Equally prejudice School building project CARE Cinva-ram bricks Santo Domingo University of Washington Seattle Rainier National Park Olympic Mountains Puerto Rico survival skills Spanish Journals Santiago de los Caballeros Dajabon Patois voo-doo Haiti Motorcycle Anima-Animas (Carl Jung) Kansas pigs cows Clavellina Priest brick making St. Thomas Temple University Temple Community Center social responsibility anthropology Presbyterian Church Philadelphia Ivan Illich social gospel Cuernavaca, Mexico Princeton University Theology Seminary Master’s Divinity US Steel Fairless Hills, PA “Ice Cream Mud” Dyslexia Doylestown, PA

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