Peter L. Pond

The Reverend Peter Pond (1933 – 2000) was a New England clergyman, activist and philanthropist who worked with Cambodian orphans on the Thai-Cambodian border. As a student at Yale Divinity School he flew to Hungary in 1956 to establish a camp for children displaced by the violence of the Hungarian Revolution. After graduating from Yale 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 [ [1] "Schindler of the Killing Fields," http://www.peterpondsociety.com/news7.html] .

Pond’s stepfather was Edwin F. Stanton, the first US Ambassador to Thailand after World War II, and over the years Pond met members of the Thai Royal Family and learned both Thai and Khmer. He worked for various church-based relief efforts for Cambodians before, during and after the Pol Pot regime, and was active in several camps on the Thai-Cambodian border. In 1980, he and the Preah Maha Ghosananda organized a protest against the forced repatriation of Khmer refugees from Sa Kaeo Camp by the Thai Government and Pond was sent to prison for a week. When Queen Sirikit heard about how Pond had been mistreated by Thai soldiers, she ordered his release and made amends by offering him three wishes. Pond selected three Cambodian orphans to take back to the US ["Not just victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States", by Sucheng Chan and Audrey Kim. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003; p. 35.] .

In all, he adopted 16 Cambodian children (as well as eight from other places), mostly orphans, including the musician Arn Chorn-Pond [ [2] "A Home for Cambodia's Children," by Gail Sheehy, "The New York Times", September 23, 1984, Page 44.] . He also worked with Thai street children in Bangkok. In 1983 he was invited by Rosalyn Carter to join the White House’s Cambodian Crisis Committee, created in 1980 as a clearing house for donations and relief efforts [Sheehy, G., "Spirit of survival". 1st ed. 1986, New York: Morrow. ] . In April 1984, he was asked to testify before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the refugee situation in Thailand [ [3] "Overview of Refugee Situation in Southeast Asia" http://www.cpas.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cis/asia/eng/84-H381-64.html] , along with Kitty Dukakis.

Pond also assisted refugees in Khmer Rouge camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, and on June 23rd 1989, as he was leaving Site 8, an unidentified soldier shot him twice, nearly killing him [ [4] "American Injured" "The Boston Globe", June 25, 1989.] . In spite of this, he returned to work a few months later and continued until his death in 2000.

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