Joseph Blatchford

Joseph Blatchford (June 7, 1934 – October 7, 2020) was the third Director of the United States Peace Corps succeeding Jack Vaughn.

Blatchford was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 7, 1934.

His family moved to California when Blatchford was ten years old and Blatchford grew up in Beverly Hills, California where his father dealt with motion picture finances.

Blatchford attended the University of California at Los Angeles where in 1956 during his senior year he was captain of the University of California's tennis team.

Blatchford went on tennis tours of Europe and competed in the British tennis championships at Wimbledon in 1956.

Blatchford was defeated by Neale Fraser of Australia in the second round 6–1, 6–1, 6–4.

Blatchford then attended Berkeley Law and completed his JD.

In 1958, vice-president Richard Nixon was charged by a mob in Venezuela.

This started Blatchford, then a student at University of California, thinking about what could be done to restore the traditional friendship in the hemisphere.

Blatchford's first venture in South America would be a good-will tour of the continent with four of his friends who were jazz musicians using tennis exhibitions and jam sessions as an entree into student communities.

Blatchford organized the tour with Ronald K. Dunton, a trombone player, who had organized jazz groups that toured Europe and Mexico while an undergraduate at Dartmouth.

Blatchford and Dunton decided to take a year off from school to organize the Latin American tour.

The plan was to give afternoon tennis exhibitions and jazz concerts in the evening without admission charges that would be followed by discussions with young people.

Blatchford and Dunton did not want any assistance from the government so they canvassed private companies, foundations, and individuals to raise $13,000 of the $15,000 they need for the tour.

Returning from the goodwill tour, Blatchford made the acquaintance of Eugene Burdick, author of the best seller The Ugly American (1958) that stressed the need for "personal" aid overseas.

Burdick became an advisor to Accion.

Burdick suggested that Blatchford obtain financial assistance from private enterprise to make a survey of the needs of various countries in Latin America.

Arthur K. Watson, president of IBM, financed another trip to South American where Blatchford talked to politicians, labor leaders, and students.

The US State Department arranged appointments with officials and the Institute of International Education, a private agency that administers government student exchange programs also provided assistance to Blatchford.

On March 19, 1959, Blatchford left on a 120-day goodwill tour covering thirteen countries with their first stop in the Dominican Republic.

The other members of their tour were Michael Payson, Toshio Nagatani, Donn Dhickering, Robert Shechteman, and Juan Elac.

"Playing tennis exhibitions, trying to use sports and music as a door opener, handles as they say, to get to know students, politicians, labor leaders. We came back rather critical of American foreign policy and American ways of doing things in these countries," said Blatchford.

"I saw the conditions and I saw the feeling of frustration that young people in Latin America had about not being able to forge their own futures."

In the fall of 1959, Blatchford started rounding up money and volunteers to serve in South America where he started Accion International, six months before Sargent Shriver started the Peace Corps.

The New York Times reported on March 26, 1961, that Accion was sending volunteers to Colombia in a program designed to provide technical aid to urban centers and rural communities.

Blatchford said that over 400 students had applied for the program and that screening would soon begin at the University of California, Stanford University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

After selection has been completed, the group would leave for another course of three months at the University of the Andes, then break into two man teams to serve their communities.

Blatchford said the cost of the program would be $125,000 for the first year with half the money already raised and that under the program each volunteer would receive basic expenses plus a stipend of about $1,100 for fifteen months of duty.

Blatchford placed his first volunteers in Venezuela in September, 1961.

By 1964 Venezuela became the testing ground for Accion's first major project which was to help an urban slum in Venezuela become a self-reliant community.

Blatchford first recruited thirty college graduates willing to volunteer overseas.

The volunteers lived with families in the barrios, improving their Spanish while familiarizing themselves with problems in the community.

The volunteers helped organize projects such as laying water mains, building schools and community centers and starting small businesses.

One of their most successful projects was helping a bakery organized in Isaias Medina by twenty women who wanted better and cheaper bread.

By 1965 the bakery had become self-supporting.

Accion also helped a construction company in the model city of San Tome de Guayana build ten houses as an experiment to increase housing and provide employment for 27 workers.

The New York Times reported on January 28, 1966, that Blatchford had been invited by business leaders in Rio de Janeiro to help organize activities in Brazil based on the Venezuelan model.

The businessmen had raised $100,000 and formed a "Centro para Accion" (center for action) in the barrios to be known as CARE after its Portuguese initials.

Blatchford was appointed Peace Corps Director in 1969 by President Richard Nixon.

Blatchford attended Christian Science Sunday School growing up; however, in a profile published in the New York Times in 1970 he said that he is no longer a practicing Christian Scientist.