Rev. Peter Pond; activist in Cambodian community
Sunthorn_Pond-Tor
Providence- The Rev. Peter L. Pond,67 of Wyndham Avenue, and advocate for the Providence
Cambodian community, died Tuesday,June 20,2000 at Roger williams Medical Center.
Mr. Pond was the founder and executive director of Cambodian Mission for Peace, and worked in
ministry at the indo-Chinese Advocacy Project at Assumption Church.
As a minister,Mr. Pond worked directly with gang members, and made strides toward controlling the
Southeast Asian gang problem in Providence. He arranged several truce sessions between gang
members.
In 1989, Mr. Pond was shot when he drove to a Khmer Rouge refugee camp at the Thai-Cambodian
border as he helped a peace mission to move civilians to sefety and to discuss starting an
educational service.
Mr. Pond was a Providence recident for 9 years. He previously lived in Jefferson, N.H., for 22
years.
He was the husband of shirley(Mason) Pond. He was born in New Britian,Conn., a
son of the late Joseph L. and Josephine (Clark) Pondd.
He was a graduate from the Rectory School,Prompret School, Yale University and Yale Divinity
School. He received an honorary doctorate from Providence College in 1992.
Mr. Pond began helping disadvantaged youngsters at the YMCA in New Haven while he was in college.
During his first year off divinity school, during
the Hungarian uprising, he flew to Hungary to establish a camp for displaced children.
After divinity school, he established recreational centers in the barrios of
Puerto Rico.
While living in New Hampshire, he was a program director for Community Action in Coos,Carrol and
Grafton Counties. He also ran a climbing school in the White Mountains for inner-city children.
Besides his wife, he leaves four daughters, Piper Scalabrin of Grantham,N.H., Anna Pond of
Boston, and Jintana Mao and Jenni Seri,both of Providence; 19 sons, Peter Pond of Claremont,
N.H., Matthew Pond of Philadelphia, Paul Wilson of Winsor, Vt., Michael Pond Wilson of
springfield, Mass., Peter Wilson of Cambridge, Mass., Rithy Ek of Knoxville, Tenn., Arn
Chorn-Pond, Kannarom Kem and Saroeun Hong, all of Lowell,Mass., and Dara Kong, Thy Horn, Lakhana
Seri, Sunthorn Pond-Tor, Seihak Mao, and bunyen Pond, all of Providence; a sister; Pamela Goss of
Bethlehem, Conn.; and 22 grandchildren. He was the father of the late Sarmeth Chum Pond.
A Mass of Christian Burian was celebrated Saturday, June 24 at ll a.m. in the Church of the
Assumption, Potters Avenue. A service also was held sunday at 10 a.m in the Cambodian Buddhist
Temple, 178 Hanover St.
Kumnith P
Pond was a great humanitarian and Khmerophile.
Kumnith
