About Bob Terry
After traveling across India and Pakistan as a journalist studying village development, Terry was chosen by Peace Corps Director R. Sargent Shriver to lead the first Volunteers sent to South Asia. During two years of service, 1961-63, Terry and 29 engineers, teachers, nurses, mechanics, and agricultural extension workers wrote regular reports on their failures and successes. He conceived and edited the East Pakistan Peace Corps Journal.
After returning home, he worked several years in Washington as a political staffer and writer. He directed the McCarthy-for-President Campaign's oral history project in 1969.
As an Arthur D. Little consultant for 27 years, including 20 years assisting agencies in Bangladesh and 20 teaching for the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute, he wrote teaching cases, articles, and book-length reports on environmental and management topics.
Terry served as a Trustee of The Experiment in International Living (now part of World Learning) and National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and is an Advisor to Senior Partners for Justice. As an early Board Chair of Oxfam America, he led the strategic planning which launched its growth – related in his chapter for Oxfam America's forthcoming history.
Bob's wife, Judith Whitney-Terry, served in mid-life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras and later on the board of the National Peace Corps Association. They and their families live in eastern Massachusetts. They have a daughter and son and two grandchildren.
He earned degrees from Harvard College (in American history and literature), Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration (now Harvard Kennedy School), and studied at the Delhi School of Economics. Twice he was a contributing member to Bread Loaf Writers Conferences.
He's now weaving a tapestry of life stories of the "East Pakistan I" team – both during our service and, using 37 recent oral history interviews, during our next 45 years. Working title: ". . . and Every One Should Try": 50 Peace Corps pioneers through 50 years, 1961-2011.
For glimpses, see Photos & maps.
