Bernard Packer

Bernard Packer, Philadelphian, graduated Central High in !952. After service in the U.S, Air Force Packer attended West Point for one year, was 'recognized' after this 'Plebe' year. He then studied Spanish at the National University of Mexico, and eventually earned a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from U.C.L.A. Hoping to see the world before settling down to any stodgy career, Packer has been a factory worker, core maker, school teacher, merchant seamen. deckhand on Swedish vessels sailing up the Orinoco and Congo Rivers, reaching ports in forty-five countries, including Gdansk and Russian oil depots on the Black Sea during the more frigid days of the Cold War.

In the Sixties Packer was a simultaneous interpreter employed by the U.S. government in cultural exchange programs to escort foreign V.I.P's on coast to coast tours of the United States. He participated in 85 of these junkets, but probably his most notable moment as an interpreter came when he was chosen to translate for the Chilean Dictator, Pinochet, at the White House Dinner where President Carter handed over the Canal to Panama.

Subsequently, Packer spent thirty years in the field of Free Labor Development, many of these years in dangerous over-seas assignments, including long stretches in Peru, Honduras, El Salvador (during the hot war, we had thirty six armed guards on our staff), Columbia, (only 2 armed guards but this was when the Supreme Court was massacred), Bolivia, five years, it felt long longer, Nicaragua, and Bulgaria, which felt rather peaceful after all the tumult in Latin America. As the field of Free Labor is quite controversial, these activities were denounced by extremists of both the Right and Left, and

Packer's tours of duty were marked by ferocious attacks in the press, an occasional bomb exploding nearby, if we had reached the Hotel Condado in Lima five minutes earlier, adios cruel world, and the standard death threats.

Packer has recently published 'Posthumous Prizes, 'on Amazon.com. A fable of a dead author returning to earth to seek vengeance on old adversaries who did him. His previously published works include 'CARO,' a Book of the Month Club alternate, Avon and Pan paperback, brought out in England as' DOCTOR CARO,'about Nazis hidden in South America. 'THE SECOND DEATH OF SAMUEL AUER.' Racial strife in the slums of North Philadelphia. 'THE SONS OF SAINTLY WOMEN.' Back when good girls said no. 'Flags OF CONVENIENCE.