Growing up on a farm in rural Hayward in an era dominated by the Great Depression and World War II proved to be a useful training ground for a longtime foreign aid worker.

Harold Gill graduated from Albert Lea High School and returned this fall for a reunion with the class of 1953. Gill spent 30 years working as an auditor and consultant for U.S. government aid programs, most of his career being spent in exotic, and sometimes dangerous, locations across the globe. Volunteering for the U.S. Army in 1954, he spent part of his two-year hitch as a radio operator in South Korea, just after the armistice was signed ending the bloody Korean War.

Twenty years later Gill was on hand for the fall of Saigon, being evacuated on a U.S. Air Force plane on April 26, 1975. He still remembers his sad and bitter feelings as he left the city three days before it fell to the North Vietnamese Army.

“I just remember feeling bad for our military and the people of South Vietnam,” Gill said.

His family had stayed in Minnesota when he left for Southeast Asia, a decision Gill and his wife, Gail, have never regretted. The Gill family would travel with him to many of the Third World nations to which his career in foreign aid work took him.

Retired since 1996 and now living in Florida, Gill began working as a certified government finance manager (CGFM) after graduating from Mankato State College with a degree in accounting in 1961. Three years with the General Accounting Office were followed by three years with the Federal Power Commission, and Gill was looking for a change.

He found himself in opposition to many of the FPC’s policies and regulations.

“I filled out a blind application and was asked if I wanted to go to Afghanistan. Gail and I found the idea appealing,” he said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, sent Gill to Kabul in 1967, as an auditor of aid programs designed to educate children, improve living conditions and modernize the economy of the ancient, tribal-centered nation. By now the Gill’s had four sons, who accompanied them to Kabul.

The scenes of mounting violence in Afghanistan that now flash across his TV screen remind Gill of his earlier experiences.

“The economic conditions and the customs of the people don’t seem to have changed,” he said. “It is a conservative Muslim society.”

The family moved on to a new assignment in Ethiopia in 1969, but Gill wasn’t done with Afghanistan. He would fly into Pakistan 15 times between 1987 and 1992, working to send medical and school supplies to the Afghan rebels in their desperate battle for survival against the dreaded and deadly army of the Soviet Union.

USAID workers would load medical supplies onto the backs of donkeys and lead them into the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. Donkeys loaded with school supplies would be led by teachers trying to establish schools in the war-torn country. Gill sees both good and bad in his Afghan experiences.

“We helped free the country of the Soviets, but an entire generation of Afghani children had their education completely disrupted because of the war,” he said. “Some never went to school at all.”

Living and working in Ethiopia was much more enjoyable for Gill, who recalls the spectacular beauty of the varied landscapes in the African land. From rain forests to high plateaus, mountains and deserts, Ethiopia offered a unique topography.

He was the auditor of an assistance aid program there from 1969 to 1974. Visiting with archeologists who were excavating ancient human habitation was a memorable experience for the Gill family in Ethiopia. So were the local people.

“The Ethiopians were just fantastic people, very friendly folks,” Gill said.

American government workers are reassigned to their home country at regular intervals during their foreign service careers.

“That is done so we don’t lose touch with our own country,” Gill said.

After a stint based in Manila in the late 1970s, the Gills came home to a posting in Washington, D.C. that lasted until 1981.

The signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords at Camp David in 1979, between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian Premier Anwar Sadat opened up new foreign aid opportunities for America.

Gill was posted to Cairo in 1981 to help administer a $1 billion aid program in Egypt, formerly an ally of the Soviet Union. He managed an office staff of five Americans and four Egyptians.

“Evidently the State Department thought we could administer a billion dollar program with only 10 people,” he said. “That turned out not to be the case.”

By the time he left Egypt, the staff had grown to more than 100 workers.

Gill has high praise for his fellow foreign aid workers, whose motivation and work ethic make the programs work. Sometimes there were problems in dealing with local governments and populations.

“There were times when we didn’t understand the locals and they didn’t understand us. We came from completely different cultures,” he said.

The language barrier is a difficult challenge, especially for aid workers with a short tour in a particular country.

“Some of these languages are extremely complex, and it takes a long time to learn it.”

Gill did manage to pick up a few phrases that were useful in his work.

“I could get by on the streets of Kabul and other places, he said, “but I was never fluent.”

The green revolution, fueled by research into plant science at American universities, provided a great stimulus to food production in Third World countries, Gill recalled, but it could also cause problems. He related an anecdote from his time in Egypt. The story involves a new, highly productive strain of wheat, which had a short stem producing little forage.

The traditional Egyptian wheat produced a lot of forage, which fed the farmers livestock.

“Wheat prices were strictly controlled by the Egyptian government,” he said. “The farmers felt that prices would fall if they produced more wheat, so they had no incentive. Plus, they lost the benefit of the forage.”

Gill retired from government service in 1986, and began working as a consultant to the Egyptian government, under U.S. auspices, helping market Egyptian farm products to Europe. He formally retired in 1997. He said his rural American roots during the Depression helped him in his foreign aid work.

“My small town farming background helped me relate to the people in the villages,” he said.