Born in China where his father was a medical missionary, Lawrence Siddall grew up in Oberlin, Ohio. He is a 1952 graduate of Oberlin College, and subsequently earned an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut and an Ed.D from the University of Massachusetts. He retired as a psychotherapist in 1996, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

BOOK
  In 2008, Siddall published a memoir entitled “Two Years in Poland and Other Stories”, in which he describes his late-life adventure as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland where he taught English in a high school from 1997 to 1999 following his retirement.

  As a 67-year-old grandfather, Siddall was one of only 450 senior Peace Corps volunteers out of 6,500 worldwide.

  He vividly describes the challenges he faced in his classroom, his struggle to learn the language, his initial feelings of isolation in adjusting to a new culture, and the close friends he eventually makes.

  Siddall’s Peace Corps adventure is only one of many in his active lifetime. He weaves these stories into his narrative as flashbacks, the longest of which describes an amazing 11,000-mile overland trek from Europe to India in a VW Beetle in 1956 at a time of political Mid-East instability.

  His account of working his way back to the U.S. on a freighter is the colorful final chapter to this five-month-long odyssey.

  The book is now out of print, but the full text of the book is available for download by visiting the publications page of this website.

ARTICLES
  Lawrence Siddall’s articles cover a wide range of topics, including memoir, travel, health and art history. See a full list of his articles here.