My name is Pat Dorr. I was the Peace Corps TEFL volunteer assigned to Quchan in the fall of 1966. Ghassem Khosravan was my liaison during my stay in Iran. He was a tremendous help to me in getting me acclimated to the culture of Quchan. He kept me informed of anything that was going on, even things that I had no idea that I needed help on. My roommate the first year was Ron Stitt, an Ag volunteer, who had been in Quchan a year. Between Ron and Ghassem and a few others, I never felt uncomfortable during my stay. Ron Stitt and I started a library in Quchan, and also oversaw the building of a school in the village of Chalaki.
The second year in Quchan, from June 1967 to the May of the next year, my wife joined me in Quchan. My wife, Janice Leypoldt, was a TEFL teacher in Shahr e Kord, a small town in the mountains west of Isfahan. We married in Tehran in June of 1967. Before she came to Quchan, Kosravan helped get a residence for us to live in and found a place that would make a bed for us. When Janice arrived in Quchan, Khosravan helped to get her set up teaching TEFL in girls’ schools. Khosravan’s wife and the wife of Dr Merzai became her good friends, and taught her how to cook a number of Iranian foods. Janice has since that time always cooked rice the Iranian way.
We don’t have many pictures of Ghassem Khosravan and his family, but the ones we have are included here.
Pat and Janice Dorr, Tigard Oregon