Loret Miller Ruppe

Loret Miller was born January 3, 1936, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her great-grandfather, Frederick Miller, founded the Miller Brewing Company. Her father, Frederick C. Miller, was the company chairman. Her father was killed in a plane crash with his oldest son, her brother in 1954. Ruppe attended Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and Marquette University in Milwaukee. Loret Miller married Philip Ruppe in 1957 and settled in Houghton, Michigan, where she began her long career as a volunteer organizer and civic leader. Ruppe served as chairperson of the Houghton United Fund campaign, president of the St. Joseph's Hospital Guild, and as an active member of the Houghton County Republican Committee. Ruppe also traveled extensively through Africa, spending time in Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, and the Spanish Sahara where she saw the potential for partnerships with third world countries to meet human needs. Ruppe attended the Conference on Africa in Ditchley Park, England, in 1978 which furthered her interest in solving problems in the third world. In 1966, Loret Miller's husband was the Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th congressional district who defeated incumbent Democratic Party member Raymond F. Clevenger to be elected to the 90th United States Congress and was subsequently re-elected to the next five Congresses, serving from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1978 to the 96th Congress. Loret Miller was George H. W. Bush's campaign manager in the 1980 Michigan Presidential primary and was a leader of the Reagan-Bush campaign in Michigan that fall. ==Peace Corps Director==

wearing Peace Corps pins in 1981 in the Oval Office. On February 15, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the selection of Ruppe as director of the Peace Corps. Ruppe said after her nomination "I have had a great interest in the Peace Corps and I'm very thrilled and excited about the nomination." Ruppe also stated her belief in the continuing relevance of the Peace Corps. Matters came to a head in March, 1981 when Reagan appointed Tom Pauken to be director of Action. Ruppe publicly took the position that there was no need for the agency to be more independent than it already was under Action. On June 20, 1981, the Peace Corps celebrated its twentieth anniversary and thousands of returned volunteers came to Howard University Washington, DC, to celebrate. Ruppe was successful in restoring the cuts. Support from Reagan Ruppe was eventually able to convince Ronald Reagan, originally a skeptic of the Peace Corps, that the agency had value. In 1981, Ruppe appointed ten country directors who had been selected by the Carter Administration over White House objections. Appeal for volunteers in Africa On January 15, 1985, Ruppe issued a nationwide appeal for 600 volunteers to begin famine relief and agricultural work in Mali, Zaire, Lesotho and Niger. This effort was known as the African Food Systems Initiative (AFSI)and the Peace Corps domestic recruitment strategy was refocused on American farmers, who responded positively to some extent. The initiative's logo was the Peace Corps dove of peace, carrying a sheaf of wheat. Other accomplishments While Ruppe was director, the Peace Corps began or resumed programs in seven countries: Sri Lanka, Haiti, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands. Ruppe also started the African Food Initiative, Women In Development, and the Leadership for Peace Campaign. Ruppe launched the Competitive Enterprise Development program to promote business-oriented projects. She created business-oriented volunteer positions within the Peace Corps to promote grass roots economic growth worldwide, an agenda that was supported by Republican Party members in the United States Congress who generally disapproved of U.S. foreign aid programs. ==Ambassador to Norway==

Ruppe was appointed Ambassador of the United States to Norway on August 7, 1989, by President George H. W. Bush and presented her credentials on August 29, 1989. She served as Ambassador until February 28, 1993. ==Personal life==

A resident of Bethesda, Maryland, Ruppe died of ovarian cancer on August 6, 1996. ==Honors and awards==

On September 5, 1996, United States Senate member of Connecticut Chris Dodd who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, honored Ruppe with a speech on the floor of the Senate: "When President Reagan appointed her in 1981, the Peace Corps budget was rapidly declining and was less than that of the military marching bands. By the end of Mrs. Ruppe's tenure she had succeeded in increasing the agency's budget almost 50 percent. In addition to budgetary challenges, Mrs. Ruppe gave the agency a political facelift by projecting the agency as non-partisan, despite the fact that she herself was a political appointee, and increasing its viability on both national and local levels. As she noted 'We took Peace Corps out of the pit of politics and made it non-partisan. It must always signify Americans pulling together for peace.' As a result of her efforts, Mrs. Ruppe was respected and admired by Democrats and Republicans alike. In terms of national visibility, she brought much needed congressional and executive level attention to the Peace Corps. Prior to her leadership the organization was nicknamed 'the corpse' and many believed its end was near. Under her command however, the organization was revitalized and its future secured. On a local level, she worked hard to increase young Americans' interest in participating in the program. By 1989, she had raised the number of volunteers by 20 percent." On October 4, 1996, Michigan Technological University dedicated the new Master's International Program in Forestry to Ruppe. In 2002 Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, dedicated the Loret Ruppe International Student Scholarships to honor the late Loret Miller Ruppe, former director of the Peace Corps and U.S. Ambassador to Norway, whose conviction was that "peace work needs to be everybody's work". The Mary Anne Foundation dedicated the Loret Miller Ruppe Ambassador for Peace Award "to tap into the original and creative thinking of the young, regarding the issues of conflict resolution, forgiveness and reconciliation." The National Peace Corps Association makes an annual Loret Miller Ruppe Award for Outstanding Community Service to a member group for a project that promote the Third Goal of Peace Corps. ==Citations==