Peace Corps History

President John F. Kennedy is considered the father of the Peace Corps. In 1960, while campaigning for the presidency, then Senator Kennedy made a late-night speech at the University of Michigan. He outlined his proposal for a civilian service corps in which college graduates would devote two years of their lives to aiding developing countries. After being elected, President Kennedy brought the Peace Corps into existence with an executive order on March 1, 1961. Congress later made it official by authorizing the new organization's budget.

kennedy with volunteers
Photo courtesy of The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
President Kennedy greets the very first
Peace Corps volunteers in August, 1962.

President Richard Nixon placed the Peace Corps within a larger federal department, but in 1979, President Jimmy Carter made the Corps a fully independent and autonomous organization [Source: The Peace Corps].

In its history, the Peace Corps has had a total of more than 187,000 volunteers, with between 6,000 and 10,000 serving at any given time. Currently, more than 7,700 volunteers are working for the Peace Corps.

Notable Volunteers
Many Peace Corps volunteers have gone on to success in their post-Corps lives. Several current and former members of Congress (both Democrat and Republican) were volunteers, including representatives Sam Farr and Christopher Shays and Senator Christopher Dodd. Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix, Priscilla Wrubel, founder of the Nature Company and Pamela W. Barnes, president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation were former volunteers as well. Evangeline Lilly, of LOST fame, also served as a volunteer before turning to modeling and acting.