1968-
2019-
James Robertson was a Generalist working on fire suppression, reforestation, environmental education in San Antonio, Chile. After PC he did not pursue this field, but completed graduate studies for an English MA at Miami University in Ohio. He worked as Community School Director in Tucson, studied for a Ph.D (wound up with an ABD) in American Studies at the University of New Mexico and he taught American literature at the University of Barcelona on a Fulbright Fellowship. On returning to the states Jamie took a job as adult education director at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge reservation. Fulfilling a long-standing dream (and being heavily influenced by Wendell Berry) he and his wife bought a farm in Minnesota where they have operated a very small (80 acre) place for the past 35 years. He is most happy about having worked for many years with folks at the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe where he and his friend Larry Aitken founded the Leech Lake Tribal College where Jamie worked as dean of instruction and president. Most recently he completed 8 years as director of the New York Mills Cultural Center, home of the Great American Think Off philosophy contest.
He believes that PC service influenced him to focus on helping professions. He writes: ”Work I have been involved with over the past 50 years happened without much of a plan. That is, even though I think my life in the Peace Corps played a very important part in what happened after Chile, the Peace Corps primarily reinforced a direction I was set on by my family from childhood. More important was my marriage to Sally Ireland in 1970, only months after returning home from Chile. She put up with me through all this and always showed an example of how to live a good life. The great people I lived and worked with in Chile helped me immeasurably. And, on a practical level, I am pretty sure that the sort of exotic aura of Peace Corps service probably helped some in getting early jobs after Peace Corps. But what really helped me, and changed my life, was that Peace Corps introduced me to a bunch of people (members of our group) who really seemed to want to make a difference in the world. I had seen that before - for example from my 6 brothers and sisters - but not from such a large group of people. Our lives all seemed like a great adventure that has continued in the 50 years since Chile. I continue to be amazed by all the good energy that comes from our group. Seeing it at the reunions invigorates old dreams. That is all part of why these reunions have become more and more important to me over the years."