Kevin O'Donnell

Kevin O'Donnell (June 9, 1925 – February 29, 2012) was the fourth director of Peace Corps, serving from July 1, 1971 to September 30, 1972. Early life O'Donnell was born and grew up in Cleveland and was educated at St. Rose's Grammar School and West High School. O'Donnell spent two semesters at Kenyon college before joining the US Navy Supply Corps during World War II. He returned after the war and graduated from Kenyon in 1947. O'Donnell earned an MBA at Harvard University then worked for SIFCO, Atlas Alloys, and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. O'Donnell was campaign manager for Republican Willard Brown's run for Cleveland mayor. Peace Corps Country Director for Korea In January, 1966, O'Donnell saw a newspaper story about a local man serving as a Peace Corps administrator in Guatemala. "This was the first time I learned that people could actually get paid to be in the Peace Corps," O'Donnell says. "That it wasn't just volunteers. So I wrote this cold letter about my experience in business. I was so naïve." O'Donnell had lost his first wife following the birth of their sixth child and battled alcoholism and was looking for a chance to do something different. "I was at a point in my life when I wished to be more mission- than profit-oriented," O'Donnell says. O'Donnell accepted an assignment from the Peace Corps to be Country Director for South Korea and to start the program. O'Donnell's assignment was to establish educational programs in English, math, science, and physical education. "You went in and you sank or swam," says O'Donnell. O'Donnell found that managing Peace Corps Volunteers was different from working in private industry. "By and large, people who applied to the Peace Corps had energy and ability, and my biggest job was to point them in the right direction and then get the hell out of the way," O'Donnell says.