Peter Lawrence Pond | |
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The Reverend Peter L. Pond and his adopted son Arn Chorn-Pond in 1983.
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Born |
Milford, Connecticut, United States |
February 13, 1933
Died | June 20, 2000 Providence, Rhode Island |
(aged 67)
Alma mater |
Yale University, B.A. Yale Divinity School, D.D. Providence College, L.H.D. |
Occupation | Director and co-founder, Inter-Religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia; Executive Director, Cambodian Crisis Committee; Co-founder, Thai Friends Relief Foundation; Founder, Volunteers in Service of Puerto Rico |
Years active | 1956-2000 |
Known for | Work with Cambodian refugees and orphans |
Spouse(s) | Shirley Mason Pond |
Children | Piper Scalabrin, Anna Pond, Jintana Mao, Jenni Seri, Peter L. Pond, Matthew Pond, Paul Wilson, Michael Pond Wilson, Peter Wilson, Rithy Ek, Arn Chorn-Pond, Kannarom Kem, Saroeun Hong, Dara Pond, Soneath Pond, Kim Pond, Nicholas Pond, Dara Kong, Sarmeth Chum Pond, Wanchai BunBanlu. |
Parent(s) | Joseph L. and Josephine Clark Pond |
Relatives | Edwin F. Stanton (stepfather), Pamela Goss (sister) |
The Reverend Peter Lawrence Pond (1933–2000) was a New England clergyman, activist and philanthropist who worked with Cambodian orphans on the Thai-Cambodian border. He was Executive Director of the Providence-based Cambodian Crisis Committee and was a co-founder of the Thai Friends Relief Foundation as well as the Inter-Religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia.
Born to a prominent family in Milford, Connecticut on February 13, 1933, Pond was named after his ancestor, the explorer Peter Pond. He described his childhood with his divorced father as "deprived of love" and said that this deprivation shaped his desire to help others. He attended The Rectory School and the Pomfret School, and graduated from Yale in 1954 with a degree in American Studies and, against his father's wishes, he entered Yale Divinity School in 1955.
As a divinity student he flew to Hungary in 1956 to establish a camp for children displaced by the violence of the Hungarian Revolution. After graduating in 1960 he worked with impoverished children in Puerto Rico and in New England, in a program on gang violence run by the Indo-Chinese Advocacy Project. In order to raise additional funds for his programs, Pond worked as the Director for Resettlement at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, as a consultant for Lutheran Social Services of New England, as a consultant for the Peace Corps in Colombia and Chile and for VISTA on Navajo reservations in the US.