Joseph Kauffman, 84, one of the architects of the Peace Corps in the early 1960s, died Friday of cancer, according to a representative from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He died at an assisted-living facility in Madison, where he had been a resident.
During the presidency of John F. Kennedy, Kauffman was based in the office of R. Sargent Shriver Jr., where he helped develop the Peace Corps program. Kauffman was appointed the program’s first director of training in 1961. He also helped establish recruitment centers and training programs on college and university campuses and he trained volunteers for overseas service.