The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

F O C U S O N L I F E & W O R K A F T E R T H E F S T HE T HIRD C HAPTER 36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 n her latest book, The Third Chapter , sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot challenges seniors to pursue passion, risk and adventure in the 25 years of life after 50. My wife, Kathleen, and I have been following Lawrence-Lightfoot’s suggestions, though the ceiling of 75 may have to yield! For almost 30 years I served with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru and Washington, D.C. Before retiring from USAID, I was detailed to the Peace Corps to develop an urban program strategy. Somehow, in the midst of moving around Latin America and raising three children, Kathleen also pursued a career in journalism, photography and publi- cations, retiring from IBM about the same time I left USAID. We then moved to Eugene, Ore., where I became an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon. There Kathleen picked up a video camera for the first time, bought an Apple computer with video-editing capabil- ities, and produced several art-re- lated documentaries for the Uni- versity of Oregon’s Asia Art Museum. In 2001, when Kathleen’s mother, Rachael Gould Mossman, died, we inherited the family home in Vallejo, Calif., as well as a 700-piece collection of hand-woven tex- tiles from around the world. While looking for a repository for the collection, Kathleen came in contact with scholars and museum personnel at the family’s alma mater, the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley, who wanted the collec- tion. A N UNUSUAL INHERITANCE LEADS TO AN UNEXPECTED THIRD CAREER IN CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND FILMMAKING . B Y P AUL V ITALE I Paul Vitale was one of the first Re- turned Peace Corps Volunteers hired by USAID, joining the Foreign Serv- ice in 1966. He served in Quito, Rio de Janeiro , Lima and Washington, D.C. After retiring from USAID in 1992, he joined the University of Oregon’s Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management as an adjunct professor. In 2001 he and his wife, Kathleen, returned to their home state of California, where in 2004 they co-founded En- dangered Threads Documentaries, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization that documents endangered in- digenous art forms. Photos courtesy of Endangered Threads Documentaries