Papers of Pauline Birky-Kreutzer

Pauline Birky-Kreutzer, a research associate with the Colorado State University Research Foundation (CSURF), was part of the staff that conducted a Congressional feasibility study on the youth corps training program which became the foundation for the U.S. Peace Corps in 1961.

Born Pauline Livengood in Atwood, Illinois, Pauline Birky-Kreutzer graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in home economics. She married Carl Birky in 1936 and worked as a home supervisor for the Farm Security Administration for six years, where she became the District Supervisor and taught farm women how to plant and cultivate crops.

After a short time in Bloomington, Indiana, the Birky family moved to Fort Collins in 1948 where Carl Birky was appointed as associate professor of sociology and economics at CSU. In 1956, Carl Birky accepted a two-year position with the State Department's Near East Foundation and moved to Tehran, Iran. While there, Birky-Kreutzer was offered a position as associate advisor in the women's program where she trained Iranian community development workers.

After returning to Fort Collins in 1958, Birky-Kreutzer accepted a position as a research associate with CSURF where she worked with Maurice L. Albertson and Albert Rice on conducting a Congressional feasibility study on a youth corps training program. Much of their report became the foundation for the U.S. Peace Corps in 1961. Birky-Kreutzer led the Peace Corps in Pakistan as the on-site coordinator from 1962 to 1963. She became director of the Center for Research and Education where she led many Peace Corps training sessions. Carl Birky died in 1976.

Pauline Birky married William Kreutzer in 1978. After William passed away in 1996, she married Richard Kreutzer in 1998 and retired to Arizona. In 2003, she published Peace Corps Volunteer, or The Perils of Pauline, documenting her experiences with the Peace Corps. Pauline Birky-Kreutzer died on August 21, 2008.