A Journey for Peace: A Journal of Peace
Don Yates enrolled as a Peace Corps Volunteer after responding to the challenge then-President John F. Kennedy issued to young Americans to ‘ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.’ From compiling over 500 pages of a diary kept while he worked as an educator and community developer in the Philippine Islands on the southern island of Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago, he gleaned over 25 stories, or episodes, depicting highlights of his life there along with reflections of local culture. Many episodes, such as the prologue entitled Culture Shock, depict a young man’s orientation and involvement in a way of life very different from his upbringing as an American. Complete with photographs from his two-year tour of duty, Don has captured the essence of an area of the world rarely seen or visited by outsiders while sharing how he grew as a young man in a foreign land.
Donald Yates
Donald Yates was born in Jersey City, NJ and graduated from the Choate School in Wallingford, CT in 1958. He then attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN where he graduated in 1962 with a B.A. degree in English. A short time later, Don joined the United States Peace Corps as an “early” volunteer and served in the Philippine Islands from 1962–1964 as an educator and administrator in a rural community. Upon returning to the United States, he met and married his beautiful wife, “Penny” (Mary Elizabeth Kelly), while beginning his career as an educator teaching English and reading at various private and public schools in northern NJ. He began his administrative work in the Irvington, NJ public schools where he was a Coordinator and a Curriculum Supervisor for nine years. During this time, Don earned his Master’s degree in English from Seton Hall University, a Master’s degree in Secondary Reading Education from Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), and both a third Master’s degree and a doctorate in Educational Administration both from Columbia University.
In 1985 Don became a Vice Principal at Millburn High School and then in 1989 became Principal of Leonia High School where he served for nine years before retiring from public education to pursue further administrative work in New Jersey higher education positions as first an Assistant Professor, then an Associate Professor, at Jersey City State College, Caldwell College (now University), and Georgian Court College (now University). He completed his education career as an Adjunct Professor at Brookdale Community College in 2018 after 56 years in education.
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Don presented materials at many national conferences and conventions, many of these based upon his life-long personal interests of innovative, child-centered educational programs and “Best Practice” concepts involving advanced teacher development and training. He also published a book, Good Business Sense for Doing Good Business, a number of articles, and other literature concerning teacher certification, clinical practices, and accelerated teacher preparation programs.
He and his wife, Penny, reside in Shrewsbury, NJ in close proximity to their son and daughter and their four grandchildren.
