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Today's Featured Biography

 
Geraldine Henkel Marsolan

After graduating from St. Olaf, I headed to Afghanistan with my then husband, Brenne to teach English for the Peace Corps. We lived in Puli-Khumri, north of the Hindu Kush, about 15 miles south of Baghlan on the main highway. At that time, it was safe enough that one day after school, we rode our bikes to Baghlan as an adventure to see our Peace Corps and USAID neighbors. Not today!

After two years, it was back to Washington, DC where I became Desk Officer for Peace Corps Morocco and traveled there twice to evaluate and negotiate programs, including meeting with Moroccan officials to explain our programs in French. It’s a beautiful country. The best of both – French and Arab, that is.

I spent the next decade traveling the world with the State Department. In Greece I worked and studied at the Athens Center of Ekistics. In Australia, I spent two years at the University of Sydney and graduated with a MTCP (master of town & country planning –very British) degree. Then I worked in the think tank of Australia’s largest development company located in downtown Sydney on an upper floor of an office building overlooking the harbor and city. We commuted to work by ferry.

Then to Hungary, then back to Washington, DC, where I worked for the feds and NGO’s for the next 15 years including NOAA; National Endowment for the Arts; Urban Land Institute; and Johns Hopkins University. I also worked for a large A&E company and did some consulting on my own including for a private historic preservation & development outfit and a professional sailboat syndicate, both in Annapolis. Then I “retired” and worked as a telecommuter for publicly-traded companies. By this time I was living in a very modest cottage in the Black Hills having an adventure.

Along the way, I married an architect. We remodeled two houses in Annapolis, built a house on the forgotten coast of Florida, and are building a house in the foothills of Panama overlooking the Pacific. We also kept a 35-foot sailboat on Chesapeake Bay for ten years.

Now I am really retired, but working harder than ever as a farm wife. Our small property is a bit less than an acre, but the deed says it’s a finca. In the tropics that’s big enough because everything grows, grows, grows. I keep busy with gardening, studying Spanish, writing, and my friends. I look forward to seeing everyone soon. The website is wonderful! It’s great to read all the bios and catch up. I hope we find some more of our “lost” classmates.

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