WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009 - (Page 27)

Opinion LUCK AND FAME My chance meeting with Norman Rockwell in Colombia by Thomas J. La Belle very so often our achievements— the ones we are primarily responsible for—are seen as less important than those we get by chance. While we all fall into some lucky moments now and then, and we all need such luck to get ahead, sometimes that bit of luck overshadows at least some of who we think we are. Such a chance occurrence happened to me as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the mid-1960s. There were more than 700 volunteers in Colombia at that point and I was assigned to a teacher training and physical education program. My job was to support PCVs working throughout the country. Wearing a coat and tie and given the title of Volunteer Leader, I worked in the national Peace Corps office in Bogota. That office had recently moved from the center of the city to a large, old, colonial-style house in a northern, residential district. One day, in early 1966, while working in this old house, there was a knock at the back door near my desk. That had not happened before, at least to my knowledge, and I could only assume that somebody got lost looking for the main, street entrance. I was the only one who heard the knock and so went to open the door. Through that door, I welcomed to the office Mr. Normam Rockwell, his wife, and a representative from the now defunct, Look magazine. Norman Rockwell looked at me and said, “you’ll do.” That didn’t mean anything to me as I proceeded to usher the group into the Director’s office. I don’t mean to suggest that the visit was not a big deal, as we all knew the Rockwell’s would be there that morning. We just didn’t expect them at the back door and E no one expected me to be the greeter. They were in the country to take photographs of one or more volunteers working in communities. These photos were intended to represent PCVs in various parts of the world and would be used by Rockwell back at his studio (which now forms part of the Norman Rockwell Museum), to paint what emerged as a series of four paintings for the June 1966 issue. Norman Rockwell, at that point in the 20th Century, was well known as an illustrator and artist who primarily did cover page illustrations, (more than 300, for example, for the Saturday Evening Post), as well as for commercial products like soup cans, and for other magazines like Look and Life. He was best known for his tender and ideal views of primarily white, North Americans, working and playing in everyday life. While he was as famous as Wyeth, O’Keeffe, Lichtenstein and Warhol, his fame was not with museum curators, scholars or independent painters, who thought of him more as an illustrator than a painter or artist. Instead, his popularity was with editors, publishers and readers who The world is their classroom. 12656.08 Wash Mont Triangle Washington Montessori Institute at Loyola College in Maryland Graduate Programs in Montessori Education World View suepartyke Sue Partyk 540-374-91 Offering the Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree combined with an internationally recognized AMI diploma. Primary Course (ages 3–6) Janet McDonell, M.Ed., Director of Primary Training Elementary Course (ages 6–12) Kay Baker, Ph.D., Director of Elementary Training 4.75 x 4.87 Insertions: Due: Aug 5 for Fall 200 Programs offered in Columbia, Maryland, just minutes from the Capital Beltway. Now accepting applications for academic year courses in both Primary and Elementary for programs starting in Fall 2009. To learn more about Montessori teacher training opportunities, please contact Graduate Admissions, Phone: 800-221-9107, ext. 5020, http:// graduate.loyola.edu/wmiinfo In affiliation with the Association Montessori Internationale, Amsterdam, Netherlands. AMI WorldView 2 http://graduate.loyola.edu/wmiinfo http://graduate.loyola.edu/wmiinfo

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
Contents
More Peace Corps Campaign: Better and Bolder!
Africa Rural Connect
Readers Write
You Too Can Be Bill Gates
Taking Peace Corps Back into the Field
Come for the Information, Stay for the Dancing
A “Green” Community Rising
Microfinance Pioneer Receives 2009 Shriver Award
The Colombia Project
A Voice for the Unheard
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Microfinance Podcasts
Selected Microfinance Resources
Bicycle! Bamenda! Orange!
Luck and Fame
A Step in the Right Direction
Bringing What She Loves
Letter from Botswana: First Tongues of the Kalahari
Letter from Tanzania: Homo Sapien in Africa
In the Beginning (There Was John)
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

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