Vic and I were roommates during our years in the Peace Corps. His friendly manner, sense of humor, energy, and outstanding language skills made fitting into Ecuadorian culture seem a natural thing for him. I learned a lot of valuable cultural and language skills from him.

Vic could not only speak perfect, native-speaker Spanish, but he could speak it as if he had a foreign accent: French, American, German, etc. That's not an easy trick. Once he confessed to putting on an American accent at a party because the girls thought it was cute. He didn't really need to.

Vic mastered another language, Morse code, as part of his interest in ham radio. In those pre-cell phone days, ham radio was the best way to communicate long distance. Vic cajoled a Heathkit radio from the Peace Corps office and got an Ecuadorian broadcast license with his own initials - HC1VT. We used it to make "phone patch" calls into the USA so that we and our friends could talk with our families. It was an educational, useful, and fun experience.

These are just some of the wonderful memories of him that I treasure.

These recordings of his experiences in Ecuador (plus a bonus with Linda) were made with Vic's home movie camera. The video quality is not very good and there was no audio. I added the Ecuadorian national anthem and "El Chullito Quiteño", a traditional folk song, plus a few sound effects. This will give you some sense of his life in those years. Here are a few time stamps you might find interesting:

In the Bolivarian Games opening ceremonies parade as coach of the Women's Gymnastic team (7:38)

In our residence's courtyard with the family that rented us our rooms (9:00) Vic and myself (9:28)

Vic in Guayaquil (11:15)

On the beach at Playas with Ecuador's best male gymnast, Pedro Rendón (15:35)

Vic and Linda's first apartment (17:40)