The inspiring words of President John F. Kennedy -- "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" -- motivated Angene Hopkins Wilson to join the Peace Corps in 1962.

"I believed what Kennedy said," she said.

Mrs. Wilson, one of the first volunteers to join the Peace Corps, spoke Saturday to members of the College Club of Sharon at the club's yearly luncheon. The club celebrated its 75th year as an organization.

Mrs. Wilson said it was Kennedy's next and not often remembered words that really made her want to join the Peace Corps.

"My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Mrs. Wilson, of Lexington, Ky., talked Saturday about the impact the Peace Corps has had in 40 years. She, along with her husband Jack Wilson, served in Liberia from 1962-64. The couple also taught high school in Liberia, and Mrs. Wilson's husband coached the high school basketball team to that country's first national championship.

Mrs. Wilson, a professor of education at the University of Kentucky, has since been to more than 10 countries, many of which she toured, taught and studied in. She said she lived in Sierra Leone and Fiji, where her husband, Jack, was a former associate and later director of the Peace Corps for five years.

"I was interested in the world and I wanted an adventure," she said.

She said she learned a great deal from the two years she spent in the Peace Corps as well as her time overseas. She said her experiences taught her to depend on and trust others in a foreign place. She said she also learned a great deal about the history of Africa and was able to teach that history to her students in Africa.

In June, she will visit Washington D.C. for the 40th Anniversary Peace Corps Conference, which was originally scheduled for the weekend following Sept. 11.

Mrs. Wilson is a cousin of Sally Wilson, interim club president.

She joins the ranks of distinguished past College Club speakers, a group that includes Ann Landers.

The College Club was established in 1926 to promote intellectual growth and friendship among college educated women and to encourage the pursuit of higher education. The club also sponsors and awards a scholarship each year. Ann Coleman, Hermitage, is president-elect for the next year.

"It's been an extremely enjoyable year. This is a hardworking organization. Everyone works so well together," Mrs. Young.