Three years ago, Russ and Blyth Carpenter spent a vacation hiking in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Their affection for the tiny country and its people has brought them back a half-dozen times to help a local family launch Bhutan's first desktop publishing company.
For the Carpenters, the allure of Asia goes back to their Stanford days. As a humanities major, Russ wrote his honors thesis comparing Buddha's and Socrates' ideas of the soul. Blyth (Coghlan) majored in Asian history. Both declared themselves "unchurched" Buddhists during college. And it was on a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia that the two students fell in love -- which only deepened their passion for the East and their determination to return.
But life intervened: three children, regular jobs and a mortgage on a house in the Bay Area. Russ became a health-care management consultant. Blyth taught high school. In their spare time, they launched an independent press focusing on natural history and, in the process, mastered computer technology.
In 1990, the couple heard a pause in what had been the steady beat of life. The kids had finished college; the house was paid off. "Chapter one was done, and we wanted to write chapter two," says Russ. They moved to Oregon, built a cabin on the McKenzie River, then decided to do some kind of public service, though they weren't sure where or how.
The answer came during the October 1996 trek through Bhutan. The Carpenters saw a poor country whose per capita gross domestic product ranks among the lowest in the world. But they also saw what Bhutan's king calls "gross national happiness." Impressed by the nation's policy of gentle modernization, the Carpenters told their hiking guide they'd like to volunteer their services, then rattled off a list of skills. The guide connected them with Dragon Wisdom Press, a family business seeking to computerize its operations. The owners had the funds, but lacked the technical know-how.
Once back in the States, the Carpenters selected and shipped off 37 boxes of scanners, computers, monitors and binding machines. Then they returned to Bhutan to install and demonstrate the equipment. Within the year, Dragon Wisdom Press became the first place in this country of 600,000 where one could scan a document or use software to design a brochure.
The Carpenters go back frequently to check on operations -- and to savor Bhutan's quiet beauty. Russ has taken up the country's national sport, archery, and is training to compete in a tournament there. Blyth is helping to find a Western distribution channel for the colorful silk weavings of rural Bhutanese women. And both are pondering where chapter three might take them.
-- Nina Schuyler, '86
