Title:  PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR CITES HUMPHREY'S LEGACY OF SERVICE
     (Mark Gearan speaks to Humphrey Fellows)
     Author:  Jim Fisher-Thompson USIA Staff Writer
     Date:  19971105
     
     Text:
     WASHINGTON -- Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan November 3 welcomed
     more than 100 foreign professionals to a yearlong training program
     administered by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), saying they
     were heirs to a legacy of service left by a great public servant --
     former Senator and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.
     
     Speaking at an orientation session for Humphrey Fellows at the
     State Department, Gearan said: "I have long been an admirer of
     Hubert H. Humphrey. As a member of the Senate and later as vice
     president, he embodied, certainly, the highest ideals of public
     service in our country and set quite a standard for citizen
     service."
     
     Humphrey was able to do this, Gearan told his audience, "because he
     understood that the value of public service is not based on how
     much money or influence or power or fame that a person could
     accumulate. But instead, he taught us that the value of public
     service is determined by how much difference that any one person
     could make in the lives of ordinary citizens."
     
     The Peace Corps official, who oversees the work of 6,500 American
     volunteers in 87 nations, said, "The Humphrey program is well known
     to many of us as a very successful, prestigious, and important
     effort that our government sponsors, and we are delighted that so
     many young leaders were able to travel here to take the time to
     join us" in furthering development worldwide.
     
     The scholarship was established in 1978, the year Humphrey, who was
     President Lyndon Johnson's vice president from 1964 to 1968, died.
     Humphrey was governor of Minnesota before joining the Senate. As
     the Democratic Party candidate in the 1968 presidential election,
     Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon.
     
     The fellowship's main goal is to give career professionals in the
     developing world academic and work experience in a number of
     fields, including agriculture, banking and finance, journalism,
     economic development, and educational planning. Academic
     institutions taking part in the program include the University of
     Washington, American University, the University of Maryland,
     Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University, Boston
     University, Emory University, the University of Minnesota, Rutgers
     University, and Johns Hopkins University.
     
     Gearan, former director of communications at the White House, noted
     that 44 of the 52 nations represented by the Humphrey Fellows had
     Peace Corps volunteers stationed in them. And he added that his
     organization and USIA share the same mission, "which is to promote
     international understanding and strengthening the ties of
     friendship that have developed with the United States and Africa,
     Latin America, South America, Asia, and the Pacific area."
     
     Hubert Humphrey's legacy of service is spreading worldwide, Gearan
     noted, and in places like "Mali and Senegal...we are working with
     governments and non-governmental organizations to help establish
     new volunteer service organizations."
     
     Gearan complimented USIA, and, in particular, its associate
     director, Dr. John Loiello, head of its bureau of educational and
     cultural affairs, for "doing a good job administering the program."
     
     Loiello, who holds a doctorate in African history from the
     University of London, noted that 2,500 career professionals have
     now graduated from the Humphrey program, and "have now taken
     leadership positions" in the commercial, cultural, academic, and
     political lives of their nations.
     
     He told the gathering that "Hubert Humphrey had an unwavering
     belief in the importance of the individual and the power of each
     person to contribute to society. Indeed, he once said: 'I believe
     that one person can make a difference. That what is wrong can be
     made right. That people possess the basic wisdom and goodness to
     govern themselves without conflict."
     
     The USIA official added, "As I look around the auditorium this
     evening, I'm absolutely convinced of the wisdom of those
     sentiments, and I'm extremely hopeful about the future of our
     peoples."
     
     Forty-six of the 119 Humphrey Fellows come from the following
     African nations: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote
     d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali,
     Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and
     Uganda.
     
     Five Humphrey Fellows from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mozambique,
     Nigeria, and South Africa will study journalism and participate in
     a work program with publications and the electronic media during
     their U.S. stay. NNNN