Ola O’Dell is Leaving Bethel For Two Years in Peace Corps

Ola O’Dell is Leaving Bethel For Two Years in Peace Corps By Chris Costanzo

Next Monday, Nov. 20, Bethel will temporarily lose a formidable presence when Ola O’Dell, 74, leaves town to join the Peace Corps. She expects to be in the south Pacific region for two years.

When O’Dell came to Bethel in 1992 to be with one of her daughters, who had entered Vermont Law School, she bought an old Victorian house on Church Street. She knows little about the building, except that it had been a medical office—a fact confirmed when O’Dell found a sign on the property reading "F.A. Edmunds, M.D."

When her daughter graduated from law school and left the region, O’Dell stayed in Bethel and it wasn’t long before she made her mark on the town. A fierce, long-time Democratic Party activist (she remembers campaigning for Harry Truman when she was still a teenager), she was chair of Bethel’s Democratic Party committee for a number of years, and was twice a Democratic candidate for the legislature. She served for many years as a justice of the peace, having been named to that position by then-governor Howard Dean. Later she was elected for two more terms.

O’Dell contributed to the area in a number of non-partisan ways. She has sat on the boards of such organizations as Safeline, Teen Scene, the After School Program, and Life Skills for Women. A devoted gardener, she worked tirelessly on the town’s Parks and Public Places, and was often seen in the spring and fall gardening on the Bethel common.

A particularly meaningful job that O’Dell held for many years was that of Town Services Officer, which required her to be available during non-working hours to help the ill, the destitute and the hungry. She had at her fingertips all the state and federal offices to aid people in such emergencies, and also had authority to issue vouchers to provision those in needful situations.

"The work was infrequent," she told The Herald, "but was important to those who needed help." 

A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., O’Dell has been a lifelong supporter of liberal causes, beginning with her work for racial integration in the south, and remembers causing a stir by refusing to patronize exclusively "white" establishments. She got a degree in elementary education from the University of Tennessee, and did graduate work in special education.

For years, O’Dell taught school in her home state, and later in Virginia, Illinois, and California. After the death of her second husband, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1987-89 in Sierra Leone, Africa, where she taught in the local teacher’s college, and worked on a U.N. project teaching entrepreneurship in clothing and tailoring. 

During her years in Bethel, O’Dell worked for the Becket Family of Services (formerly the Pike School) in New Hampshire, a residential school for troubled boys, except for a two-year hiatus when she worked for Community Action in Randolph. She retired from Becket October 3 and said she is returning to the Peace Corps because "the time has come for a new adventure." She exudes vibrant good health that belies her 74 years.  

O’Dell expects to start on her Peace Corps assignment next spring. Meanwhile she and her dog Seamus, himself a well-known fixture on Church Street, will visit family and old classmates for Thanksgiving in Tennessee, and go to California for Christmas with others of her family. Afterwards she will go to Oregon and Washington to see her children, and Seamus will stay with relatives when she goes abroad.

We hasten to add that Bethel will see O’Dell again in two-and-a-half years. She is not selling her house, and fully intends to return to Bethel after her Peace Corps assignment.

"I like my house, I like my neighbors, and I like Vermont, which is a very beautiful state," she says. "Besides, I’m too old to change my home again!"

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