One of the most rewarding activities for PCIA is reuniting people who knew each other years ago in Iran. We regularly receive requests for help in finding RPCVs or PC staff members, and we’re often successful.

In August, 2011, as our first-ever reunion began in Portland, OR, Idaho Public Television journalist Marcia Franklin made her way to the “Dezful” table. Having produced a documentary about her 2003 trip to Iran to report on the environmental movement there, Marcia had been invited to Portland to show the film and share her insights.

But she had a secondary mission – to help her Boise friend Azam Houle locate the Peace Corps volunteer who had served in the ancient city of Dezful  in the 1960’s when she and her sister Ezzat and their siblings were growing up. The volunteer’s name was Paul Levering, but in Dezful, he was known as “Mr. Paul.”

To read Ezzat’s story about finding “Mr. Paul,” click HERE.

Jackie Spurlock provides a behind-the-scenes look into how the search transpired.  Then Paul Levering tells about what happened after he was “found.”  Read these two articles by clicking HERE.