Danuta Kassowska

Peace Corps Volunteer, Thai 87, 1986-1988
b.1915 Poland
d.1988 Bangkok

There should be memorials for the volunteers -- like Danuta -- who really did give up life to service.

Reading my letter still moves me to tears because Danuta was genuinely a wonderful person. It was truly the case that she and I became fast, close friends in the early days of my tenure as Country Director. I was still finding my place and was confronted by some difficult and troubling matters for which Danuta was of immediate counsel. And over the past decades she still inspires me when times are tough. I even tell her story to others that if she could survive Poland in 1939 and work so energetically for the common good and with good spirit and sense of humor, then all the rest of us should rise above our miseries and charge ahead.

I suppose, in a sense, Danuta will be with me for the rest of my life at least and so she still lives on. She should have recognition in Thailand and be recalled by the current volunteers whenever they get discouraged or doubt the value of their service.
Vance Hyndman, September 30, 2006

Danutaletter.jpg

Danutapicture.jpg