The Vegetable Grows and the Lion Roars: My Peace Corps Service

Gary R. Lindberg is a historian, educator, and author whose life has been shaped by a commitment to honest inquiry and genuine service. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his degree in U.S. History during the defining days of the Free Speech Movement, Gary brings the discipline of a trained historian and the perspective of someone who has always believed that the hardest questions deserve the most careful answers. Before entering his professional career, Gary answered Sargent Shriver's call to join the Peace Corps, spending two and a half years in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), West Africa, where he taught primary school students and educators how to grow vegetables more productively in a tropical climate in a trial school gardens program. He became fluent in French during that chapter of his life. He later served his country in the United States Navy for four years. Gary went on to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from San Francisco State University and built a distinguished 43-year career as a Human Resources professional with organizations including Del Monte, McCormick, Quebecor Printing, and others. He retired in November 2019 to pursue personal interests.