Gary S. Collins

From Peace Corps Wiki

I was a math/science teacher in Lome, 1966-67, and in a small village Baguida just outside Lome in the coconut plantations, 1967-68. I trained with a few other math/science teachers and a big group of English teachers in a training program that took us to Dartmouth College and to Ste. Anne de la Pocatiere, Quebec, over two summers, with a stint in New Orleans at Christmas time. Terrific training, in particular from a French language training team headed by John Rassias ("mettez y du tigre!"). Wonderful students at Monsignor Cessou H.S. in Lome and at CC Baguida. During the summer between the two school years, I and a group of about four other volunteers helped villagers build an elementary school in Kusuntu, a small village outside of Kpalime, in a project organized by Dana Sutton (anybody know where she is??) I also took a marvelous journey through the interior of West Africa that included a boat trip down the Niger River from Bamako to Gao, passing through Mopti, Segou and Timbuctu.

I returned to graduate school in physics and currently hold a position as Professor of Physics at Washington State University, in Pullman.