Peter Grothe, CCAS PhD ’70, passed away on June 16 at the age of 81. Grothe was an author, educator and philanthropist, and spent 31 years as an adjunct professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies Graduate School of International Policy Studies. He taught cross-cultural communication and American politics, and served as the director of the International Students Program. He also authored To Win the Minds of Men – a Study of the Propaganda War in East Germany and wrote numerous scholarly articles in the American Political Science Review, Western Political Quarterly, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Grothe’s proudest achievement was drafting the original Peace Corps legislation and giving it the name “The Peace Corps” in 1960, when he worked as foreign relations advisor and speech writer for Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. In 1961, he was appointed deputy director, U.N. Division of the U.S. Peace Corps. Read the full tribute in The San Francisco Chronicle.
