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Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm:
Reflections of a rice widow

Mrs. Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm and her late husband, Dr. James Curtis Moomaw, IRRI’s first agronomist (1961-69; photo left), came to Los Baños in November 1961 with an infant son in tow, ready for a grand adventure. After 8 years at IRRI headquarters and in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Jim Moomaw went on to establish the first rice program at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria and then served as the second director general of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) in Taiwan. He passed away prematurely at age 55 in 1983. Recently visiting IRRI for the first time in 26 years, Carolyn fondly looks back at meeting and marrying Jim and their time at this new institution called IRRI.

Getting together at Washington State
Jim [James Curtis Moomaw] was the grandson of a very famous pioneer in the field of soil science, Dr. Curtiss F. Marbut (photo right), who did quality international work in South America, the Soviet Union and Africa, as well as in the United States. This was always on Jim’s mind and it honed his interest in doing similar research. Jim grew up on the Branch Experiment Station in Dickinson, North Dakota, where his father, Leroy Moomaw [also an agronomist and noted for his work with crested wheat grass], was superintendent for many years. He went to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, for his junior and senior years, where he excelled in track. He majored in botany and chemistry at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and earned a master's degree in range management at the University of Idaho. He was working on his degree in botany (with R.F. Daubenmire, a pioneer in plant ecology), and was particularly interested in applied agronomy involving soils, pastures, and grasses at Washington State University (Washington State College in those days) where I met him in a class on soil microbiology during the 1954 fall semester. He was just back from a summer with the Forest Service in Alaska and was on crutches because he had “chopped” the wrong limb! He made a real impression on me on those crutches—and he was my lab partner!
          A year passed and we didn’t pay much attention to each other. Then he visited me the summer of 1955, when I was working at Yellowstone National Park and taking a break from my graduate studies. Suddenly I realized this older man—he was five years older, which again impressed me—was interested in me! We were married almost immediately! He visited me in probably August-September and we were married in February. It surprised everybody including both our faculties. I was an MS candidate in the Bacteriology and Public Health Department. He called that a “semi-respectable” branch of botany. At that time, he had not yet finished his PhD and had not even taken his pre-lims. But from the time we were married on 5 February 1956 to the next September, we both finished our degrees. He finished his pre-lims and his very long research project, which in botany, you know, takes several seasons. He did a study of the grazing and burning of pastures in the Columbia Basin region and I did a biochemical type of research project. We both passed our orals on 19 September 1956, packed up, and left that night for his first job as an assistant professor of agronomy and soil science at the University of Hawaii. Hawaii in 1956 was not yet a [U.S.] state, but still a territory—and that in itself was new territory for us.

Things just sort of happened
I was born in Oklahoma. My father, Alvin Regier, who had itchy feet, was a science and math teacher. He took us first to California where he could make a better living. He actually flipped a coin to decide whether to seek a better fortune in New York or California and California it was. I was a fifth grader then. Most summers we drove "back east" to Kansas, where both my parents had their roots. With a Mennonite background, my father was a pacifist, gentle, and very curious about the world. I was the older daughter with a younger sister. Things just sort of happened to us. I wasn’t afraid of leaving home or traveling, so, when I left San Jose State with a bachelor’s degree, I decided not to find work right away. I went to Washington State University with an assistantship, met Jim, and earned a master’s in bacteriology and public health—and the adventures began!
          Our advisors at Washington State told us not to stay too long in Hawaii because, at that time, the university was not considered a first class institution. But as it turned out, it was certainly a jumping off point for us. I was not able to find work (this was a year before Sputnik and research funding was scarce) at the university and they didn’t even have a PhD program in microbiology. I did work for more than a year with Truesdail Laboratories, a private testing lab, more or less as a "girl Friday". However, I was anxious to get some other things done. I wanted to travel before we started a family!
          After some convincing, Jim accepted a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Kenya in East Africa for a year. So, in 1958, we left for our first trip around the world. I had never been east of the Mississippi until we landed at Idlewild Airport in New York. We spent some time in Europe and then on to East Africa. [On the fellowship,] Jim was as an ecologist doing a survey of the Coast Province [in Kenya]. We enjoyed that tremendously. It was just the two of us (photo right). We had a small land rover—with a driver sometimes—but most of the time Jim drove and I navigated. We saw an immense amount of territory [considering the terrible road conditions]. There were very few Americans in East Africa. In fact, many thought we were Canadians or South Africans, which was just fine with us.

IRRI-bound on the USS Hoover
We returned to the University of Hawaii in time for me to register in the Invertebrate Zoology PhD Program (still no Sputnik-generated research funding!). Then I became pregnant with our first son [John] and the Rockefeller Foundation began to court Jim and we were having visitors coming in from New York and people going to and from the Far East—many coming to look us over. In those days, wives were interviewed for their ability to adapt and to be a part of the team. I particularly remember having breakfast at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel with George Harrar [then RF’s director for agriculture and later RF president, 1961-72] and wife Georgetta, as baby John sat quietly in his infant seat on the table! By then, the Rockefeller Foundation [along with the Ford Foundation] had really decided on establishing IRRI. They were [originally] thinking that Jim might go to Japan to conduct research there, but when Sterling Wortman [IRRI associate director, 1961-64; photo right] came into the mix [Jim had been occasionally working with Sterling (photo at right), who was then at the Pineapple Research Institute [established in 1938 and closed in 1973] and they were very compatible] he (Sterling) suggested that Jim be considered for the [first] agronomist position at IRRI. So, Jim was invited out to see IRRI as it was being built [July 1961] and to meet [Director General Robert F. ] Chandler and the rest is history as far as IRRI is concerned. We were excited, very excited and we packed up all of our belongings and we traveled by ship on the USS Hoover from Honolulu to Yokohama [Japan], and Hong Kong prior to docking in Manila and that was the beginning of this aspect of our very exciting life together [in the world of rice].
            [Regarding rice itself] as a child, rice certainly was not something that I ever thought of. My mother would serve it to me with cinnamon and sugar—rice pudding. Now, thanks to [our time at] IRRI, we think of it in an entirely different way. I’m very snooty about rice, even today you see. I don’t want to buy that old stock that’s in the market. I know some good Asian rice stores in Dallas and New York and where I live now [in Oklahoma].

Changing personality to get the job done
Since I had circumnavigated the globe (East Africa, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Tokyo), with Jim, during his Fulbright year, I was not so shocked by the poverty [we saw] in the Philippines at that time. While we were still in Hawaii and at a very critical time for our future, we heard George Harrar [photo, left], give a seminar at the University of Hawaii describing the world's many problems with poverty, overpopulation and food deficits.
            So, Jim was very inspired to be involved in this effort and he worked very, very hard. It required a change in personality for him because he was not at all accustomed to giving orders [at IRRI]. He was a very gentle man; he was not aggressive. He had his personal ambition that didn’t always show through, but it was there. He had to learn to order around and sometimes yell at the students and workers to get things done faster. I mentioned this to my own sons [later] when I saw them struggling [themselves] while trying to be assertive and aggressive. I told them: “Your dad had to get a grip on things to do the job he was given and he had to change his personality too.”
            At IRRI, we probably had an advantage being Americans and speaking English. There were not very many Americans at IRRI in the beginning. But there were many other nationalities and they were also very motivated and excited to be a part of this undertaking.  However, in some cases, the women [spouses] with whom I interacted, were quite lost without the extended families they were accustomed to. The Chinese, the Sri Lankans [Ceylonese then], the Indians came from cultures where they had a strong support system. Coming [to IRRI] was a much greater sacrifice for them than it was for me or for any of the American women [who came to IRRI with their husbands in those days].

First baby at IRRI
Our oldest son [John], who was born in Hawaii, was only 13 months old when we arrived at IRRI. Our son [Martin] was the first baby born to an international IRRI family living in the compound [July 1962]. [Dr. Chandler tells the story of when Carolyn and the baby came from the hospital to the Institute, they were greeted with a fireworks display, secretly arranged by wildly enthusiastic building and grounds staff to celebrate this IRRI first!]
            It was a wonderful life. We had magnificent helpers in the house. We had a playground near the tennis court and the swimming pool was just amazing. The boys spent lots and lots of time in the swimming pool. Fortunately, they were all healthy and that, of course, was always a worry because we had very little access to medical care. There was a health unit on the campus that Doctora Banzon handled and when John, on several occasions, needed stitches we went there.
           Of course from the beginning, I became involved in schooling one way or the other. The Church Among the Palms (photo, left) was my first adventure into what would become a pattern for my life overseas, when we developed the nursery school in Los Baños. Being a microbiologist, I prevailed upon a Philippine military establishment that was nearby to check on the children for roundworm and tuberculosis. That was one of my contributions to getting the school organized. I remember that Rev. Orteza and his wife were very supportive and quite a few of our international staff children went through that little nursery school.
           The Makiling School on the campus of the University of the Philippines (UP) seemed to be very, very satisfactory with one exception. Frank [Francis C.] Byrnes [IRRI’s first communications specialist, 1963-67; photo, right] and [wife] Ethel arrived shortly after we did and were our downhill neighbors. They had one son already grown, Kerry, who spent little time at IRRI. A second son, Kevin was enrolled in the nearby [University of the Philippines Los Baños] Rural High School. Their daughter, Katherine, who was 4 years old when they arrived, was a very outgoing little girl. She went up and down the compound's rows houses knocking on doors to see who had children. She wanted to find playmates. Now, when Katherine went to school, Ethel was not at all happy with her treatment in the local schools. In the Filipino schools, as we observed then, little girls were supposed to be quiet and to defer to little boys. This was not what Ethel had in mind at all for Katherine. She pulled her out of Makiling and sent her to a small Catholic school somewhere between Los Baños and Calamba. In this instance, it apparently worked, for Katherine developed into an extremely independent and successful career person with three little boys of her own.
            Without Frank Byrnes, I would have lost contact with the international life after Jim died [of a brain tumor at the age of 55 on Long Island] in 1983. Frank and Ethel were in New York at that time too (Ethel died six months after Jim). He’s the one that made a real effort to keep me informed of what was going on at IRRI and the RF, the comings and goings of the staffs who were the new directors, who was getting the World Food Prize [won by five IRRI staff members over the years]. In fact, he encouraged me to go to Winrock [International, associated with the RF] for the first time. That was after I had moved to Dallas to work with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and about seven years after Jim died. I went there and met some of the old timers including Loyd and Esther Johnson [Loyd Johnson, IRRI’s first agricultural engineer, 1961-68]; and Robert and Liz Havener [interim (1998) IRRI director general Robert D. Havener]. This sort of jolted me out of my grief because it had taken me such a long time to recover. I had to think about the boys, to organize my job at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. I had to move. So, I really hadn’t come out of it until Frank met me at Winrock. Finally, I could say I’m still alive; I’m still here.

Landscape hardly recognizable
[Since my last visit to IRRI in 1979, the landscape] is hardly recognizable for me. I can’t even identify where I am most of the time partly because there are now several roads to get through Los Baños and on to [IRRI] staff housing. We didn’t take a familiar [road] the first day we arrived. I have seen more familiar things now that I’ve been on the campus with a driver. Of course, the gate to IRRI has changed; they moved the “goal” post and that was a little bit disconcerting. SEARCA [Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture] used to be on the road to the campus and I kept looking for that because it was quite a dramatic looking building. Yesterday, I was there so I know where it is now.
            It is a whole new environment because the vegetation and everything has grown. We put in many plants. I spent lots of time with the gardener. My husband being a botanist was very interested in putting selected plants in our garden. We were on a high slope and, with all these little boys running around, we had to build a fence to keep them from falling down into the Byrnes’ yard. So, we had gardenias all around that fence. Well that fence is gone, the gardenias are gone, the ylang-ylang tree is gone, but the bigger trees are certainly big and I recognized the house, which was beautiful then as it is now. [In 1961] we were just awed by the structure [of the house; photo at right without plants], the quality, the view, the materials used. It was very, very nice. And it was great to be able to design our own interiors with the help of a decorator. Because we were the first ones in those houses, we could choose our furniture, the colors, everything.

First Moomaw legacy: speed bumps

We had a lot of little children growing up [in the staff housing compound]. As I’ve already mentioned, my son [Martin] was the first to be born of [international] IRRI staff, but after that, there were quite a few being born and also more staff members were coming in with young children. So, we had a lot of traffic [on the road] as well as children and their nannies going up to the swimming pool and playground and going to school and just going across the street to play with each other. Now, the director and his wife [Bob and Sunny Chandler; photo left] were really fast drivers. They would come zooming down that hill [from their residence] and so we young mothers at the bottom of the hill decided that the speeding cars were dangerous. So, I initiated a petition [to install speed bumps] and I got all the young mothers to sign it and I gave it to Bob. Because of this, we got the speed bumps in staff housing. Those are my speed bumps, which were really directed at Bob and Sunny because they were the busy ones who kept zooming down the road. That slowed people down and I was famous for that.

Schooling a problem in the early days
Schooling was difficult for the boys; and they never had the advantages of good school. I think it troubled them as adults. I hear now what [IRRI] kids are being offered [education-wise] and how well they are doing and what a good background they are getting—I'm envious because no matter where we went [in those early days], we had to start a school. That’s what I did most of the time—worrying about schools and figuring out how we could make them better. The boys suffered so it was a real problem that I couldn't solve at the time. We really didn’t have much choice and we did the best we could. As I see [my boys] as men now (oldest is 45 and the youngest is 39), they have all struggled with their background one way or another. Of course, having their father die [in 1983] was probably their biggest handicap at that fledgling stage in their lives.

On going to Ceylon in 1967: IRRI's first outposted family
[In 1967] IRRI received a grant from the Ford Foundation for rice research in Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka) and Bob Chandler offered Jim the opportunity to lead the project. I didn’t want to go [to Ceylon]. I had four little boys (Bill was 15 months, Charlie was 2½, Martin 5, and John 7; photo right). I couldn’t see myself coping. I was worried about obtaining potable water, milk, good food, and other basic necessities.
            Colin McClung [IRRI assistant director (1964-66), associate director (1967-71), and co-winner of the 2006 World Food Prize; photo below left] was making the arrangements for us to go to Ceylon and encouraging Jim to take the Ford Foundation position. He knew my resistance [about going] so, one evening, he suggested “Oh, why don’t you take Lina with you? [In McClung’s own words later, one of his most brilliant ideas]. Lina was my very, very well adapted helper from the Ilocano area [northern Philippines]. She had been with us since the time Martin was 15 months old. She had been married (but single now) with a little boy who was then in the barrio with her mother and father. So, she was available. Then we decided to take Nita [our other helper] too. We didn’t want Lina to be the only Filipina in Kandy, Ceylon. We thought Lina needed company. So, it was arranged for both girls to go with us and then it was easy. I would have two Filipino nannies in their starched, white uniforms with me! We were quite a unit going into the IRRI Program at Kandy.
            One of the greatest joys I’ve had on this trip [during 2005 visit to IRRI] was visiting with Nelson, Lina’s son, and his wife in Manila. He was with us overseas for 3 years. We picked him up when we were living in Ceylon and on our way to the U.S. for Jim's sabbatical year, thanks to Kay Golden [see below] who got him his papers; his hair cut, and suitable clothes for the trip. He replaced Nita, the single helper, when we decided to send her back to the Philippines because we felt that we should not keep her away from her culture and from her opportunities in Los Baños. Lina’s husband had abandoned her soon after Nelson's birth and he had a new family down in Mindanao. So, we didn’t feel we were doing any harm and as it turned out we probably did a lot of good.
           Nelson gives me credit for teaching him discipline, which he now uses with his own kids. He is a colonel in the Philippine Military Police in La Union. I hadn’t seen him in 25 years. We had a wonderful visit. He is 1 year older than John, my oldest son. When he came to live with us in Ceylon, he spoke not a word of English. Of course, he’d never lived with all of the things that American families have. He was our “5th” son. He got everything the others got. When we moved to Africa [Nigeria being a Muslim country], and before I realized what was going on, the local population thought Jim had two wives. I was senior madam and Lina was junior madam. They thought Jim had five sons—which did a lot for his ego! It was a joy talking to Nelson about those experiences when he lived with us in Ceylon, in Sacramento for the sabbatical year, and in West Africa [see below].
           The house [in Kandy; photo left] was amazing. It was an old, white mansion-looking structure with a balcony owned by a Ceylonese tea planter, a Major in the Ceylonese military [Derek Nugawela] who became one of our very good friends. The house was on the edge of Kandy Lake across from the Temple of the Tooth, one of the most revered Buddhist sites in the world. I can still hear the bells of the temple elephants as they slowly walked to and from the temple. The house had to be screened and completely rewired because here was this American family coming in with dryers, refrigerators, freezers, etc. (no air-conditioners needed at this comfortable Kandy altitude!). The house also had to be furnished and redecorated. Here again, I had a wonderful time picking out furniture and decorating a really unique home. And everything could be ordered from Peter Justesen, a Danish catalog company!
            Most of the time, Jim was in the field. He was all over that island. He was so motivated to see everything and to get as many rice plots established as possible. He worked all the time and even though Ceylon is a relatively small island, he was away from home a lot. I had my hands full taking care of the boys, managing all the house staff, and entertaining. Even though we had had lots of visitors while we were living at IRRI, all of a sudden we were the only ones [in Ceylon] and so everybody who was coming through, of course, either stayed with us or we entertained them. That was really fun for me. I also enjoyed meeting other nationalities [in Kandy] including Brits, Germans, Dutch, and of course the local Ceylonese. The educated Ceylonese were very westernized and very curious about Americans; initially, we were the only ones in Kandy. The Peace Corps returned to Ceylon, after being banished during the time of the nationalization of all American oil companies, while we were there. We became very friendly with some of the local doctors, lawyers, etc. (English was widely spoken). The most senior "cleric" from the temple lived next door and even though we never had an opportunity to visit with him, when he died, we went to pay our respects. We did visit the homes and up-country tea plantations of several new friends. They took us to the game parks. They enjoyed our four sons. It was a very, very nice and memorable 2 years that we spent there.

Out of Africa
After Ceylon, I was disappointed that we didn’t come back to IRRI. I wanted to come back. I wasn’t all that keen on going to Africa. We had arm-twisting sessions in New York with Richard Bradfield [IRRI agronomist, 1963-71; photo right], who knew Jim's grandfather when they had been in the field together in Cuba in 1928], and the Rockefeller people who ultimately talked us into the job. We knew that it was important. We knew that this new institution [in Nigeria, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)] needed what Jim could offer [as a rice agronomist] and in the end we decided that we would do it and we went to Ibadan, Nigeria [in 1970].
            Asia and Africa were very different. The Nigerians were so in your face and so confident. [They had a] there-is-nothing-I-cannot-do [attitude]. This was a real change from the very soft approach we experienced in Asia—almost obsequious in some respects. Nigeria had a very different culture and of course, in the Philippines, there was a large middle class—well educated and ambitious who filled all the junior staff positions at IRRI. In Nigeria, there was almost no middle class at all. They were very poor and unskilled and had to be trained for the simplest tasks. It was hard to find people who could do secretarial work or assist in the field. It was very frustrating from that point-of-view, but that was part of the reason we were there. We knew this and so we adapted.
            Jim enjoyed IITA. He first went there as the rice specialist [Chandler credits him with starting IITA’s rice program]. Together with the resident Nigerian rice breeder, he developed the rice program and then became the farming systems leader. This broadened his scope a lot to include economics and soil and water management. Some of the people whom he hired in the department were just very, very good and very motivated—including Eugene Terry [a future director general of WARDA, the Africa Rice Center, 1987-96; photo left], Rattan Lal, Tony Juo, Doug Headly, John Flinn [IRRI agricultural economist, 1978-91], and Keith Moody [IRRI agronomist, 1975-95]. It was a big department with respected Nigerian staff too. Then, Jim was offered the outreach director position. He accepted it and traveled all over Africa putting in cooperative programs. I don’t think he ever got to South Africa, he traveled mostly in the middle part of Africa. It was dangerous in many respects, often traveling in a small plane. It was a very nerve-racking time for me. Internal surface travel while we were in Nigeria was really very difficult as well because the roads were so bad. So, I didn’t get to do much traveling in Africa myself. I did get to Côte d’Ivoire and once to Kano and Kaduna in Northern Nigeria. We made a couple of trips to Kenya to show the boys the game parks. Jim really wanted to stay home when he was home. He wanted to stay right where we were. And again, we had many, many visitors. That was always exciting to have people come—mostly men because they were traveling on business, but sometimes couples came and families sometimes. It was a very interesting life [like going to the local market, photo at right]; there’s no doubt about it.

Impressions of fellow pioneer families
While I was at IRRI, I was so involved with the children and the [housing] compound that I really had very little contact with the Institute itself except through Jim. Still, there are personalities that I remember well. [In all these cases], I know the wives better than I know the husbands.
             Bob (montage at left below) and Sunny Chandler were incredible people—inspiring, energetic, devoted, and generous. Bob had very little patience with trivia, however. He wanted everybody—all the scientists—to get their boots dirty right away, be out in the field. In fact, the story was he would go around and look at the boots. If a staff member hadn’t been in the field that day, there would be questions. Of course, Jim had no problem with that. Agronomy is the field. We admired both of them greatly. I learned a lot from Sunny. Apart from my mother, Sunny Chandler had more influence on me as a developing, maturing young woman than anyone else in my life and that holds true today.
         Yes, we [the spouses of the early IRRI international staff] were rice widows. I think Chandler coined phrase. That’s what we called ourselves. He was an empathetic man and recognized our plight, but IRRI scientists, often away from home for long periods, had a job to do and we appreciated that.
            Sterling Wortman [IRRI’s first associate director] and [wife] Ruth were a wonderful family. We knew them, of course, in Hawaii. Sterling was the one who recommended Jim to Chandler in the first place. He very quickly became the ideal scientist to Jim who really admired his skills. Ruth, a devoted wife, was a nurse. However, she may not have felt the same enthusiasm for her husband's job as I did for mine. Ruth was quiet and an excellent mother. She was very good with all of the other IRRI wives. She spent a lot of time trying to make them feel at home and she was very popular with all of us. [Sterling] was called back to New York by the Rockefeller Foundation to a senior position as director for agriculture and I believe Ruth was glad to be back in the United States. Tragically, Sterling died soon after of pancreatic cancer, a great loss to everyone.
            Peter Jennings [IRRI’s first rice breeder, 1961-67; and co-creator of IR8; photo left] was difficult—bright, of course, very able [See pioneer interview, Luck is the residue of design], but he did not get along well with some of the staff. Sometimes, one just had to ignore Peter's rough personality. [Wife] Barbara was very much a part of the young mothers in the compound (they had adopted three young Columbian children). Barbara was with us for all of the events and was a strong, capable member of the community. Of course, Jim admired Pete's abilities, but they were not always on the best of terms.
            Hank Beachell [IRRI’s second rice breeder, 1963-72; and a co-creator of IR8; photo right] loved to play golf. He, Jim, and a couple of the others would go to Calamba [about 20-km west of IRRI] where that first golf course was being developed. He just had an off-hand, very casual Texas manner. He was beloved by everybody. [He lived to be 100, passing away in Texas in 2007]. [Wife] Ena was another story. She was a determined, loud Texas lady. She was a pianist, a music teacher, before she came here. She ordered Hank around and she gave Sunny some problems, but she was never dull. Ena was always interesting and likeable no matter what she did. And she entertained well and she was often the life of the party.
            William “Bill” Golden [IRRI communicator and first rice production specialist, 1964-74] and Kay were initially one of our neighbors in the row houses (they later moved into a beautiful, new house near the tennis courts.) They were wonderful neighbors. We would have visits from people representing the International Potash Institute, who we were particularly fond of and Kay [at right in 2006 photo with Carolyn] and I sort of competed to see who was going to entertain them. One evening, at a party at their house, we realized that one of the visitors, a handsome Lithuanian, had been on the ground firing anti-aircraft guns during WWII while Bill was in the air above flying bombers. So, these two men [suddenly] realized that they were on opposite sides of WWII and this was a very interesting evening indeed, listening to these two men [relive the war]. Bill [photo, right at Banaue rice terraces] traveled all over the Philippines. He was a pilot, of course, not that he flew himself when we knew him but I believe he did fly for IRRI later. He was curious about everything and he was always working. When he was working on Palawan, he caught falciparum malaria which was not fun. I will remember him coming to dinner and sometimes falling asleep at the table because he had just returned from a different time zone or from traveling all night. He and Kay followed us in Ceylon, where they lived in the same house and knew many of the same people. [Bill died in a tragic airplane crash in Egypt on 9 March 1979.]
            T.T. Chang [IRRI’s first geneticist, 1962-91; photo far left, and a co-creator of IR8] was reserved. I knew wife Nancy [at left in 2007 photo] quite well because she had [young son] Dean and she needed some advice about how to care for him. She came from an environment where she had been working and had a nanny to look after her son. So, she really didn’t know very much about feeding or disciplining him. When she saw that I had a baby [Martin], she would come to me for advice. Whether she took it all or not, I never knew, but it did wonders for my ego! T.T. was always a gentleman. He was not an outgoing man in any sense that I saw at that time. I’ve continued to keep in touch with the Changs over the years. [T.T.died in 2007] Sons Dean and Jeffrey [left and right in photo below with Dean’s son Nathan] have done very, very well; they had excellent parents. [Note: Dean and Jeff relate their own experiences growing up at IRRI in a future pioneer interview.]
            S.H. Ou [IRRI’s first pathologist, 1961-78; photo below left] lived next door to us. [Wife] Jane was sort of an ideal for me. Talk about a Chinese mother, she had these two sons [Tungching and Shukong] and she used to grin at me and say “they’re going to get a Nobel Prize.” They were so talented. They had a piano and we could hear the younger son playing Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, etc. She had those two boys scheduled for every 10 minutes. They were either learning to swim, to play tennis, studying, or practicing something. I knew the younger boy better because the older one went off to school and was not there as long. But they had a very schedule-oriented household. S.H. was very quiet and gentlemanly.
            One day when Jim was traveling, son Johnny had his first accident in the house. It was late June and I was very pregnant with Martin. Johnny was running down the hall and he tripped and fell hitting his head on the wooden stairs that go up to the bedrooms. He opened a big bash on his forehead. Well, I called next door and S.H. came with the car. We took John down to the Health Unit at UPLB to Doctora Banzon. S.H. and I held John while the doctor stitched his head. Of course, John is yelling and screaming and everyone’s afraid that I was going to give premature birth because of all the excitement, but I didn’t. I remember S.H. being quite emotional; he was reacting to the experience almost as much as I was. He was very nice man. I saw them later when I was living on Long Island after Jim died. They invited me to come to New Brunswick (near Rutgers University). And I did go and spent a very nice weekend with them. I learned that Jane had died [in 1998] and S.H. went to live with a son in the western part of the United States [Palo Alto, California] and I lost track of him. I know that he passed away [in 2001] They were favorite people.
         There were two Bens. Ben Vergara [first senior staff in plant physiology, 1961-95; photo far left] and Ben Juliano [IRRI’s first grain quality chemist, 1961-93; photo, near left]—two young bucks, both single and obviously very capable young scientists. I I began to know Ben Vergara when the rumors started to go around about Ben and Lina Manalo [IRRI’s first librarian, 1961-93; photo, right below]. We realized that there was a romance coming and that was exciting for all of us. I knew Lina [photo, right] perhaps better than Ben because Dorothy Parker, a Rockefeller Foundation Library Specialist from the New York office, used to come to advise Lina on the library. She was a nice lady and we always entertained her. She was just very pleasant to be around and, of course, Lina was learning a lot from her. The Manalo-Vergara wedding was the first at IRRI.
            Mano Pathak [IRRI’s first entomologist, 1964-74] and his family of three girls lived just across the street from us. [Wife] Durga when she came, I think, was frightened mostly because she was so isolated and she couldn’t speak English. I was so impressed by Sunny Chandler who immediately started teaching her English. Sunny was very able; she had taught literature in college, so she was well qualified to teach English to help the staff who needed help. Durga became more confident. Her problem with interacting with the rest of the staff was that she was a strict vegetarian. Even the smell of cooking meat made her ill. So, we ladies were always concerned when having the Pathaks over for dinner. At special dinners, at the Director's house, she would often disappear and we all knew that she was throwing up in the bathroom. But after a while, and since they stayed so long [at IRRI], I’m sure that Durga developed into a very secure and confident person—a leader, I understand, in many ways. Her little girls were sweet. I remember how surprised my sons and I were one morning when we looked over across the street to see two little [Pathak] girls with their heads shaved—they were just bald as billiard balls. The idea was if you shaved the heads of girls at a certain age, their hair will grow back thick and glossy. Of course, that was new to me. I would hear cultural information of this sort many times during those years [at IRRI].
            Felix Ponnamperuma [IRRI’s first soil chemist, 1961-85; photo right; see pages 28-29 at the end of this World Bank pdf file] used to make me so mad because as a husband he was so impossible. I didn’t see how [wife] Olga lived with him. He was authoritarian and chauvinistic; he ran the household as though it was his fiefdom. Olga didn’t have much say in anything. She was treated like a servant in my view. Yet, Jim, who was in the same department with Felix, got along very well with him. He respected and admired Felix as a first class soil scientist. I liked him too—he was a charming and entertaining host and as a guest he was often the life of the party.
            At almost every party held at the Director’s house, Dr. Chandler and Felix would arm wrestle all the way to the floor. They would challenge each other and it was generally Chandler’s idea. Usually, it was an even match—that’s why they kept up the challenge—this is something I really remember. Professionally, he was a star among the staff. We once met his brother Cyril, who was on the NASA moon project at the Ames Research Center in California. Cyril Ponnamperuma [was selected as a principal investigator for analysis of lunar soil in Project Apollo and so] was the first one to get moon rocks [to study]. The Ponnamperumas were indeed an interesting family. We became friends with Felix's sister, Mary de Silva, and her husband, when we lived in Kandy. Mary made several beautiful and very elaborate birthday cakes for the boys the years we were there. It's from Mary that I learned of Felix's late, first wife, who was the favorite of his family. So, Olga already had a problem when she came to IRRI with Felix.
            S.K. De Datta [IRRI agronomist, 1964-91; at left in photo with Jim in Hawaii] was a favorite, of course, because he was Jim’s first Ph D student and we knew him well even when we were in Hawaii while Jim was an assistant professor. S.K. was a skinny, very intent, active—hyperactive—young man. Then of course when he joined Jim at IRRI [in 1964], we felt responsibility for him as a young man here all by himself as well as a colleague—from Jim’s point-of-view. We were delighted with S.K.’s success here [he was agronomist and principal scientist, 1964-91 and headed the IRRI Agronomy Department, 1966-89. From 1989 to 1991, he provided leadership in IRRI’s Rainfed Lowland Rice Ecosystem programs] and elsewhere [Since 1991, he has served as director of Virginia Tech's Office of International Research and Development, which was expanded in 2003 to become the Office of International Research, Education, and Development]. Jim was always very proud of S.K. and S.K. was always very appreciative of what Jim had taught him. His courtship and marriage to famed actress and dancer, Vijaya Laksmi, is a story in itself. I have regular contact with the De Dattas through reunions and the Asia Rice Foundation USA.
            Loyd Johnson [first IRRI agricultural engineer, 1960-68; photo, right] and [wife] Esther were here before we were. Esther was a Honduran lady and so she had a different culture. Lloyd, as the first engineer, laid out the fields [some 80 hectares] and so he and Jim had a very close relationship professionally. Esther and I were just a little guarded with each other because we both had very strong personalities. But, I became very fond of her and saw her several times over the years after I left the Philippines. She died last year [2004] and  I encouraged Lloyd to come to the last IRRI reunion [in the
U.S]. He did come and with his son, Carl, so I felt a special connection there.
            There’s a special connection with almost everyone with whom we lived here—if they are still living, many are not! Yesterday [13 December 2005] I met with Mercy Drilon [wife of the late Jose D. Drilon, IRRI executive officer, 1959-69] whom I hadn't seen for many, many years. It was just so nice to see her again because she was always so beautiful and she had these three little boys and two beautiful little girls. My children were very much aware of that family and we were very much aware of Joe and Mercy during the time that they were here and enjoyed them very much.
            I really enjoyed everyone we met [at IRRI] The turnover [of staff coming and going] in the duplexes behind us was quite large. Every once in awhile I remember some family who was back there. There was a Prince (and his "consort") from Thailand. Dick and Hannah Bradfield, Stan and Beth Johnson, and many others—some for a short time, some long. There were just many, many people whom we met and enjoyed. As a group, we were always very interested in new staff and how long they would stay. Everyone made and effort to invite them over to introduce themselves and to make them feel at home. This was just part of the atmosphere of IRRI staff housing.

IRRI visit jogs memory
Visiting IRRI now [December 2005], I’m remembering things that I hadn’t thought of for so long because I’ve really been very busy since I left—having two more husbands, a career, and maintaining contact with family and friends. Carl [Wilhelm in photo with Carolyn in front of IRRI’s long-term Continuous Cropping Experiment that Jim started in 1963. Currently in its 132nd crop, it is the most intensively cultivated experimental site in Asia] and I are doing a lot traveling so, I haven't had much time for reflection. But I’m beginning to take stock and I want my sons to have a record of their early lives overseas.
            I'm very fortunate to have all of the letters I wrote to my parents beginning with Hawaii and finally Taiwan. I’ve read through some of them and am relieved to know that I really was good mother! I’m trying to get my sons involved—to see how they remember some of these events, but they’re too busy right now. I do feel very honored to be a part of this IRRI Pioneer Interview Project.

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