the lost american ON THE LIFE

A Brief Biography of Fred Cuny

'Some Things About Myself....'
In March 1985, Texas Monthly published a lengthy article by Stephen Harrigan about Fred Cuny and the work of his Intertect staff. Harrigan had traveled to Madagascar to observe Cuny in action and also spent a lot of time interviewing him in Texas. At one point, Harrigan asked Cuny to write down some things about himself and Cuny wrote these two pages on how he saw himself and his company.

A Hero of Our Time
This November 1995 article in The New York Review of Books is a good overview of Fred Cuny's life and work. Shawcross had stayed with him in Sarajevo and he details here Fred's successful efforts to restore gas and water to the beleaguered city.

'After The Earthquake: Rebuilding Guatemala in the native spirit' by Gerry Nadel
Following the 1976 Guatemalan earthquake which killed over 25,000, writer Gerry Nadel arrived to report on relief operations. He soon encountered a 31-year old Texan named Fred Cuny whose unique approach to disaster reconstruction became a focus of Nadel's reporting. This excerpt is from his full article which was published in East West Journal , June 1976.

'Fred Cuny in Bosnia'
an excerpt from Christopher Merrill's The Old Bridge: The Third Balkan War and the Age of the Refugee
Cuny and Merrill had several conversations in Sarajevo. This excerpt focuses on Cuny's work in Sarajevo and his anger over the West's refusal to intervene in Bosnia. Merrill's piece also illuminates the deadly problems of humanitarian aid work in the post-Cold War era.

'A Celebration of the Life and Work of Fred Cuny'
This tribute was given by Morton Abramowitz at a memorial held in September 1995. Abramowitz is the former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

'Mission-minded:  Dallas man confronts disasters hurting Third World's poor' by Kurt Schork
Schork's newspaper feature outlines how Cuny helped set in motion 'Operation Provide Comfort' - the post-Gulf War relief effort which harnessed the U.S. military and got over 400,000 Kurdish refugees out of the mountains and back into their northern Iraq villages. ('Operation Provide Comfort' was the first and best example of using the military in humanitarian relief work; it has been a benchmark from which all subsequent military/humanitarian joint ventures have been measured.)

'Intertect - The International Disaster Specialists'
Here are excerpts from the brochure of Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation, the Dallas company Fred Cuny founded in1971. Intertect offered technical assistance and training in disaster relief for the UN and volunteer agencies worldwide. The company was bought in 1996 by International Resources Group in Washington, D.C.



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