In a speech to college summer interns in 1962, President John F. Kennedy stumped for the聽聽international volunteer organization he created by telling a motivational story about Tom Scanlon.
The president didn鈥檛 mention that Scanlon was a 1960 Notre Dame graduate or that the 鈥渇riend鈥� who told him the tale was聽聽Nor does the history聽聽on the Peace Corps website mention the 45 young people who trained at Notre Dame and landed in Chile about a month after another cohort (Ghana) is celebrated as the first group to serve.
Ditto for a recent documentary celebrating the Peace Corps鈥� history, which didn鈥檛 mention the role Father Hesburgh played in helping聽聽make Kennedy鈥檚 vision possible. Even Father Hesburgh hints at some secrecy in his 1999聽.
鈥淓verybody knows about the Peace Corps, but relatively few people know that Notre Dame played a pivotal role in the earliest beginning of the program,鈥� he wrote.
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