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1. Interview with Abe Calmenson, United Jewish Fund and Council Oral History Project, St. Paul, Minnesota

Creator:
Calmenson, Abe
Date Created:
1978 - 1983
Description:
In this interview, Abe Calmenson gives an account of his life as a Jewish Minnesotan. He describes involvement in the early Zionist movement around the United States and what was then Palestine. While there Calmenson co-founded the Jerusalem School of Music. Topics associated with Zionism in this interview were the ZLA, Theodore Herzl, and Henrietta Zoild. The bulk of the interview is however devoted to Calmenson's family and his life in the early 20th century on the East Side of St. Paul, with special consideration given to his father who was a scrap peddler. This interview was conducted by an unknown interviewer as a part of the United Jewish Fund and Council Oral History Project focusing on the West Side Flats/Lower West Side Jewish community in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

2. Interview with Anne Nordstrom Fremberg, New London Oral History Project, New London, Minnesota

Creator:
Fremberg, Anne Nordstrom
Date Created:
1975 - 1990
Description:
Interview with Anne Nordstrom Fremberg. Fremberg discusses growing up on her family's farm inside Sibley State Park, including her memories of the Great Depression. Her daughter Lorraine Danielson conducted the interview.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

3. Interview with Ben Brochin

Creator:
Brochin, Ben
Date Created:
1979-07-01
Description:
Ben Brochin was born in Minneapolis on Sept. 2, 1909, to Solomon Brochin (1878-1958) and Anna Levinson Brochin (1883-1947), who came to Minneapolis from Lithuania in 1906. Solomon Brochin ran a grocery store (later a delicatessen) in North Minneapolis. Ben Brochin began work in his father's store as a child and later took over the business. Brochin's Delicatessen had four locations and finally closed in 1967. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The North Minneapolis Jewish neighborhood - Brochin's store, with a vivid description of its contents - his father, an ardent Zionist, grocer, and agent for a steamship company that brought immigrants to the United States - boyhood work in the store, including selling newspapers - amateur boxing as a source of income for young men - celebrating the end of World War I at the Glass Block in Minneapolis - his father's practice of staking new immigrants to food on credit at his store - the Talmud Torah picnic at Longfellow Gardens and Zoo - and the Emanuel Cohen Center. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: The MHS photo collection includes a photo of Solomon Brochin in his store.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

4. Interview with Benjamin G. Arriola

Creator:
Arriola, Benjamin G.
Date Created:
1979-01-13
Description:
Benjamin G. Arriola was born in Manilia in 1931, and grew up in Cebu, in the central Philippines. In 1960 he came to the United States as a student, along with his wife. The couple first stayed with Ben and Belen Andrada, who had encouraged them to immigrate. He became a U.S. citizen in 1970. He is the father of Benjamin S. and Melissa S. Arriola. At the time of the interview he worked in insurance.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

5. Interview with Benjamin S. and Melissa S. Arriola

Creator:
Arriola, Melissa S.
Date Created:
1979-01-13
Description:
Benjamin S. Arriola was born in Minneapolis on February 26, 1961, and his sister, Melissa S., was born on July 20, 1963, in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Their parents arrived in Minnesota from the Philippines one and a half years before Benjamin was born. They have both attended public schools in Richfield, and Benjamin, a high school senior, plans to study engineering at the University of Minnesota. Unlike their first cousins who live a block from the Arriola home (see interviews of Marietta and Cristeta Andrada, also in this oral history project), the Arriola children have not been active participants in Filipino cultural activities, but instead have focused on social activities with school friends. Nevertheless, the four children, whose mothers are sisters, have always spent a great deal of time in each other's homes, and the Filipino cultural tradition of their immigrant parents has been an important influence in their lives. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Benjamin and Melissa discuss the ways in which they are more adapted to American ways than their parents and also the influence of Filipino values on their early development. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: This very short interview is interesting mainly for the children's statements near the end, in which they describe the importance of their parents' cultural background in their own development, despite conscious efforts to be American. Part of the tape is marred by poor audio quality, but all of the interview is understandable.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

6. Interview with Carolyn Koudela, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Alexandria, Minnesota

Creator:
Koudela, Carolyn
Date Created:
1979-02-21
Description:
Biographical Information: Koudela was a farmer from Alexandria, Douglas County. She was president of Save Our Countryside. Subjects discussed: Initial involvement with powerline controversy. Background in community involvement. Learning about the powerline. Save Our Countryside-history of; how it differs from other organizations; finding resources for information on line; communicating with cooperatives and CPA-UPA; membership; role as president. Counties United for a Rural Environment. Working with the media. General Assembly to Stop the Powerline-reason for; structure; organizing. Role of Governor Perpich. Impact of legal system on movement. Status of the line and opposition. General Accounting Office investigation. Impressions of working with state government. Tripp campaign. Women as visible spokespersons in controversy.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

7. Interview with Charles L. Anderson, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Litchfield, Minnesota

Creator:
Anderson, Charles L.
Date Created:
1979-02-14
Description:
Biographical Information: Anderson was President, board of directors of Cooperative Power Association. He was a farmer in Litchfield, Meeker County. Subjects discussed: Background. Impact of powerline on the area. Structure of Meeker Cooperative Light and CPA. Relationship of CPA with UPA. Mid-Continent Area Power Pool. Events leading to the Powerline project. Choice of a DC line vs. a AC line. Determining the need for more power. Opposition to the line-anticipating; reaction to; meeting with leaders. Financing the project. Vandalism and the subsequent costs. Effectiveness of hearing process. Being grandfathered out of siting process. Health and safety issues. Science court. Lawsuits. Use of security guards. Handling of controversy by the media. Government Accounting Office study. Future needs for energy. Impact of controversy on future powerlines. Mankato line. Establishment of and reaction to Rural Electrification Administration.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

8. Interview with Cheng-Khee Chee and Sing-Bee Ong

Creator:
Chee, Cheng-Khee
Date Created:
1979-12-07
Description:
Cheng-khee Chee was born in 1934 in a rural village near the city of Xiamen (Amoy), in the Xiangyu District of Fujian Province, China. He attended the village school for four and a half years before his family immigrated to Malaysia in 1948. Chee completed elementary and high school in Penang, Malaysia, and graduated from Nanyang University in Singapore. He arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1962 as a graduate student in library science. He completed a master of arts degree in 1964, and in 1965 he took a position as librarian at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Chee is an active member of the American Watercolor and Midwest Watercolor Societies. He paints in watercolors in both Asian and Western styles, has exhibited in both national and state exhibitions and won numerous awards, including the Gold Medal of Honor from the Allied Artists of American, 1980, and the Colorado Centennial Award from the Rocky Mountain National, 1976. Sing-bee Ong was born in Penang in 1934 of a Chinese family. She and Chee were classmates at Nanyang University. Ong arrived at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, for graduate study in education in 1965. Chee and Ong were married in August of 1965, and all their four children were born in Duluth. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background in China and Malaysia - Chee's decision to seek professional training in the United States - the later decision of Ong and Chee to remain in the United States and to raise their family in Duluth - their feeling of acceptance by the University community and townspeople - concerns on bringing up children in an area where few other Chinese live - Chee's work and recognition in the field of watercolor painting in addition to his work as librarian. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: The family background of both Chee and Ong illustrates the traditional pattern of emigration from Fujian Province in China to Malaysia. Their later experience also exemplifies the secondary migration from Malaysia to the United States that has occurred among overseas Chinese since the 1950s. Their interview provides material on the experience of Chinese in Minnesota who live outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

9. Interview with Deborah Pick, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Lowry, Minnesota

Creator:
Pick, Deborah
Date Created:
1979-02-13
Description:
Biographical Information: Pick was a native of Wisconsin. She moved to Minneapolis in 1975 to attend school and work. While attending school on and off, she taught in special programs for emotionally disturbed children, worked in the theater, and with the tenants union. She became involved in the powerline controversy and moved to Lowry in 1978 to work in the issue full-time. Subjects discussed: Background. Becoming involved in the controversy. Media-image produced regarding issues; newspaper vs. TV coverage; relationship of media to protesters and to utilities. Relationship of current movements to involvement in previous groups. Health and safety issues. North American Coal Co. and realtionship to UPA and CPA. Government Accounting Office investigation and possible recourse for opposition. Cooperative as representative of the people. Routing of line and siting law. Political involvement by opposition. Reactions of residents to outsiders involvement. Role in struggle. Purpose of confrontations. Science court. Legal defense record-court record; decision by jury vs. judge; grand jury investigation; supreme court decision. Security methods instigated. Darrell Mulroy and utilities. Easement compensation. Effect of line on people. Effectiveness of how opposition was organized. Future of powerline controversy. Future energy needs.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

10. Interview with De los Reyes Family

Creator:
De Los Reyes, Carl
Date Created:
1979-03-16
Description:
The De los Reyes children: Carl (born in 1959), Alfredo (1961), Gene (1962), Nelson (1964), Marie-Rose (1965), and John (1969?). All were born in Manila, Philippines, except for John. The family moved to Seattle in 1968 and to Minnesota in 1969. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Fil-Minnesotan meetings and activities - importance of family and respect for parents.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

11. Interview with Dr. Merle N. Hirsch Ph.D., Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Morris, Minnesota

Creator:
Hirsch, Merle N. Phd
Date Created:
1979-02-20
Description:
Biographical Information: Hirsch was a professor of Physics and chairman of the Science and Mathematics Divisions, University of Minnesota at Morris. Subjects discussed: How he became involved in the powerline controversy. Hearing process-involvement with; effectiveness of. Environmental impact of line and Corona discharge. Commonwealth Associates report. Monitoring ozone levels produced by line. The effect of electric fields on plants and animals. West Coast trip. Science court. The possibility of an underground powerline. Need for line. Usefulness of research on powerline, especially for scientific community. Impact of controversy on farming community.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

12. Interview with Florence Glick Greene

Creator:
Greene, Florence Glick
Date Created:
1979-08-13
Description:
Florence Glick Greene was born January 1, 1900, in Muscatine, Iowa. Her parents came from Laskova, Lithuania, a small town near Riga. Her father came to the United States in 1890, and her mother came with their four children more than three years later. Florence Glick married Louis Greene on January 23, 1926, and they had two daughters. She died November 24, 1985. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Early life in a small Iowa town - life in Minneapolis in the 1920s - work experience - anti-Semitism - the Depression - social and cultural activities - immigrants' poverty.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

13. Interview with Francis J. Tsai

Creator:
Tsai, Francis J.
Date Created:
1979-01-04
Description:
Francis (Frank) Tsai was born in 1948 in South Bend, Indiana. His father, Hong-ji Tsai, had graduated from Purdue University in engineering in about 1937 and had stayed on to work for the Studebaker Corporation. During World War II the senior Tsai joined the United States Marines and was stationed as a liaison officer in Shanghai. While in Shanghai he married the daughter of family friends. After the war he returned with his wife to South Bend and the Studebaker Corporation. The company's executives planned to send Tsai's father back to Shanghai to manage a planned Studebaker plant in that city, but with the Communist victory in China in 1949 those plans were abandoned, and the family remained in South Bend. In 1951, when Frank was about three, the family moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and six years later they moved to the Twin Cities area, where Tsai's father had been offered a job by the Honeywell Corporation of Minneapolis. Tsai grew up in the Minneapolis suburbs of Glen Lake, where he attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School, and St. Louis Park, where he attended Benilde High School. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in child psychology in 1970, and in 1972 he received a master's degree in public health from the university. During 1972 and 1973 Tsai worked as a health educator at the Neighborhood Health Center in San Francisco's Chinatown, a project funded through the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. He returned to Minneapolis in the fall of 1973 and accepted a position at Northeast Community Organization, working on a health planning project under a grant from Hennepin County. From 1974 to 1976 Tsai served as a public health counselor for the Minneapolis school district, and in 1977 he accepted a position as health analyst for the Minnesota Department of Health. While working at the state health department, Tsai began to work with early organizers of the Minnesota Asian American Project, a pan-Asian organization designed to serve the needs of the Asian-American community. In 1978 he became the first president of the organization and spearheaded efforts to establish an Asian cultural center in the Twin Cities. He left the state health department to work full-time at South Side Community Enterprises, where he focuses his efforts on raising funds for the project. In 1979, when adequate support for the project failed to materialize, Tsai accepted a job in Chicago as director of a feasibility study for the Cooperative Health Plan, a private, for-profit stock company offering a prepaid health plan. Later, after implementation of the company's health plan, he became director of the company. Subjects discussed include: Family background in Shanghai - child rearing in the immigrant community - intermarriage of second- and third-generation Chinese - the structure of the Chinese community in Minnesota - political attitudes - discrimination - and initiation of the pan-Asian Minnesota Asian American Project (MAAP), and efforts of its members to develop an Asian cultural center in the Twin Cities. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: As president of MAAP, Tsai had contact with leaders of various class and regional groups in the Chinese community, as well as with leaders of other Asian groups. His perspective on the Chinese and larger Asian community therefore reflects his broad experience with both the older Asian immigrant groups and those who have arrived recently. He is also very perceptive in his observations concerning the second and third generations.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

14. Interview with George W. Crocker, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Lowry, Minnesota

Creator:
Crocker, George W.
Date Created:
1979-02-21
Description:
Biographical Information: Crocker was from Minneapolis and graduated from Stillwater High School. He attended the University of Minnesota for several years when he became involved in the anti-war movement. He worked as a draft counselor and anti-draft organizer for the Twin Cities draft information center. He was living in Lowry, Pope County during the powerline protest. Subjects discussed: Background; involvement in 1960s anti-war movement; becoming involved in powerline issue; reaction to powerline controversy; cooperative decision making process; decentralized energy; development of energy needs; soft vs. hard technology; usefulness of non-violent protest tactics; significance of protest movements; relationship of powerline investment and dome stadiums; personal role in controversy; utilities strategy; impact of the media; Tesla Project; and developing alternative energy resources.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

15. Interview with Hyun Sook Han

Creator:
Han, Hyun Sook
Date Created:
1979-01-03
Description:
Hyun Sook Han was born in about 1938 in Seoul, Korea. She was the oldest of ten children in her family, only seven of whom survived to adulthood. Her parents grew up in a rural area of South Korea but moved to Seoul as young adults. Her father was an office worker for an electric company. In 1945, when she was seven years old, Korea gained independence after 40 years of Japanese rule, but five years later the Korean War began. It was a period of severe hardship for residents of Seoul, who had to evacuate the city in January of 1951 and move with United Nations troops to the south. With widespread starvation and illness among the refugees, the three youngest children in her family died, and none of the others could attend school until they returned to Seoul in October of 1952. Seoul in 1952 was the scene of continuing food shortages and lack of adequate shelter, and although her father had a job, he was not paid initially. In 1958 she entered Ewha Women's University, and remembering the many abandoned babies and children she had seen during the wartime evacuation to the south she decided to prepare for a career in social work. After graduation from Ewha, she married and had a daughter, and in 1964 she accepted a job with International Social Services, an agency that handled American adoptions of racially mixed children born in Korea as a result of the American military presence. In 1971 she was selected by the U.S.-sponsored Council for International Programs for a four-month period of study and training at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and the Children's Home Society of St. Paul. After her return to Korea she applied for a job at the Children's Home Society, and in 1975 she immigrated with her husband and two children to take a job in the agency's Korean adoption program. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Hyun Sook Han discusses her family background in Korea - hardships of the Korean War period - and the place of adoptions in the Confucian culture of Korea. She also describes the changing roles of men and women in the immigrant community in Minnesota - problems of child-rearing - difficulties for Koreans in forming friendships with Americans - the role of the church - and problems of many Korean wives of American soldiers in Minnesota. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Hyun Sook Han is an articulate representative of the women in the Korean immigrant community and provides valuable information on the changing family structure and special groups such as adopted children and servicemen's wives.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

16. Interview with Joe Huie

Creator:
Huie, Joe
Date Created:
1979-03-25
Description:
Joe Huie was born in about 1892 in a rural village in the Taishan District of Guangdong Province in southern China. He immigrated to the United States at age 17, arriving in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1909. Through a friend from his village who had arrived earlier, Huie got a job as dishwasher in a Chinese-owned restaurant, the St. Paul Cafe, where he later worked as cook and manager and eventually became part owner. In 1915 he returned to China for a visit to his family and village. Upon his return to Duluth in 1917 he was drafted into the armed services but discharged almost immediately because of his lack of knowledge of the English language. In about 1920 he got a job at the Chinese-owned Arrowhead Cafe and worked there for more than a decade, sending remittances to Taishan for the support of his family and saving money for a future business of his own in China. In 1933 he returned to China and established a small business in Taishan. He remained there with his family until 1937, when the Japanese invasion of China threatened his business and he decided to return to Duluth. After World War II Huie again went to China and established a business in the provincial capital of Guangzhou (Canton). With the Communist victory in China in 1948, Huie realized that private businesses were in jeopardy and returned to Duluth with two sons. In 1951 they established the Joe Huie Cafe, which became a landmark in the city, attracting patrons from every walk of life. Huie operated his restaurant for 22 years before retiring in 1973 at the age of about 81. Because of restrictive American immigration laws and Chinese tradition, Huie's family remained in China during most of his years in Duluth before World War II. Although he brought two sons to Duluth in 1949, after liberalization of U.S. immigration law in 1943, it was not until 1954 that his wife and two youngest children arrived in the United States. His youngest child was born in Duluth after the family had been reunited. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Joe Huie's early life in China - his struggle to survive as a young immigrant in Duluth - his many inventions - and his interest in healing and folk medicines. Huie also provides information on the early Chinese community in Duluth. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Joe Huie is one of the few early twentieth-century Chinese immigrants to be interviewed for this oral history project, and he provides invaluable information on the experience of early Chinese immigrants in Duluth. Portions of the tape are somewhat difficult to understand, but for the most part Huie's spoken English is understandable.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

17. Interview with John R. Stone, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Pope County, Minnesota

Creator:
Stone, John R.
Date Created:
1979-02-21
Description:
Biographical Information: Stone was the editor of the Pope County Tribune. Subjects discussed: Background. Pope County Tribune. Coverage of the powerline controversy. Getting information on issues from the cooperatives and the utilities. Effect of reporting on opposition effort. Quality of overall reporting on issue. Determining newsworthy events. Covering confrontations. Sheriff's responsibility in confrontations. Relationship of lawsuit and protesting. Public relations. County attorney's resignation. Tripp campaign. Reporting of damage by cooperatives and cost discrepancies. Difficulty of job as editor in reporting controversy. Impact on people in area. Reasons for controversy. Opposition groups.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

18. Interview with Joyce Yu

Creator:
Yu, Joyce
Date Created:
1979-06-04
Description:
Joyce Yu was born in 1946 in Washington, D.C., where her father was employed as a Chinese area specialist by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during World War II. Her parents, Robert and Victoria Yu, arrived in the United States from China in about 1939. They lived in southeast Minneapolis from the time of their arrival until 1941, while Robert Yu was a graduate student in agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota. Two sons, Robert and Victor, were born to the family during this period. The elder Yu completed his degree in 1941, but the family could not return to China because of war conditions in the Pacific, and they moved to Washington. In 1947, after Joyce's birth and the war's end, the family returned to China, where Robert Yu accepted a job as vice-president of the Farmers' Bank of China in Shanghai. Postwar conditions in China grew increasingly unstable, however, and the family returned to the United States in 1949, when Joyce was two and a half years old. The Yus settled in southeast Minneapolis again, and Joyce spent most of her childhood and youth in this neighborhood. She attended University High School and the University of Minnesota, from which she received a bachelor of arts degree in sociology in 1968. After graduation she was employed by the university's Office of Student Affairs from 1968 to 1973, and she also completed a year of graduate study in educational psychology. From 1973 to 1975 she worked for VISTA on the West Bank in Minneapolis. In the fall of 1975 she went to Taiwan for a year of study in Chinese language and tai chi (martial arts). Upon her return to the United States, Yu worked as student internship coordinator at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and in August of 1977 she took a job with the Otto Bremer Foundation in St. Paul, working as a program officer, reviewing and evaluating grant proposals. In 1979 she left the Bremer Foundation to become the director of the Women's Funding Assistance Project for the Ms. Foundation, and in 1981 she was appointed executive director of the Ms. Foundation. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background - class and regional differences within the Chinese community in Minnesota - family structure and child rearing in the state's Chinese settlement - and the developing ethnic consciousness of young Asian Americans at the University of Minnesota during the 1960s. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: This interview provides valuable information on the northern intellectuals (Mandarin speakers) in the Chinese community in Minnesota, the subgroup in which Yu grew up. It also provides insight into the experience of Chinese families who have settled in the state since World War II, and of Asian students at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

19. Interview with Marcus E. Erickson (1913-2002), St. Cloud State University Oral History, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Creator:
St. Cloud State University
Date Created:
1979-01-30
Description:
In an oral history conducted by St. Cloud State University Professor of History Calvin (Cal) Gower on January 30, 1979, Marcus Erickson detailed his family history and educational background. Erickson discussed his father's receiving a job with Pan Motor Company as their reason for moving to St. Cloud, though the company later folded as a result of the owner going to jail. He described his family was somewhat poor, so the decision to attend St. Cloud State was a natural choice, since it was affordable and would allow him to live at home. He also detailed his reasons for becoming a teacher. After graduating from St. Cloud's Technical (Tech) High School in 1932, he attended St. Cloud State with help from the National Youth Administration (NYA), a New Deal program that allowed students to take part in work study programs. If not for the NYA, Erickson would not have been able to finish college. He also discussed several important teachers to him, including Evelyn Pribble. Erickson claimed that the teachers were very strict, but only because they knew the students were there to learn. He also addressed some of the extracurricular and social activities he was involved in at St. Cloud State, including band and the Camera Club, as well as the demographics of the school. Erickson graduate in 1936 with a bachelor's degree. After graduation, he received teaching jobs in Remer and Brainerd, Minnesota, before he began working with the Army Air Force Program. Here he helped develop a program that would help correct improper weight and balance in airplanes. This program was later moved to Yale, where Erickson was able to receive his master's degree in Education. He also received a master's degree in Science from the University of Michigan. He then moved to California, where he taught until 1956, when he began working with the California Teachers Association. He remained in California and eventually retired. Erickson talked about his career after graduating from St. Cloud State, and also reflected on the ways in which the University prepared him for his career and other aspects of his life. He also discussed his memories of how the Depression affected the school and the people around him. Overall, he claimed that St. Cloud State was a strict but friendly school that prepared him wonderfully for a career as a teacher.
Contributing Institution:
St. Cloud State University
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

20. Interview with Marvel H. Chong

Creator:
Chong, Marvel Hum
Date Created:
1979-06-08
Description:
Marvel Hum Chong was born in Minneapolis in 1910. She is the youngest daughter of Bing Hum, an immigrant from China who arrived in Minneapolis before the turn of the century. He was a native of the Taishan District of Guangdong Province in South China, and before he came to Minnesota he worked on a railroad in Montana. He married an Irish Canadian, Sarah Cassidy, and they settled in Willmar, Minnesota, a railroad transfer center west of Minneapolis. Hum opened a laundry in Willmar and later purchased the Glarum Hotel, which he operated for many years before moving his family to Minneapolis in 1908. In Minneapolis Hum opened another laundry and three different restaurants in succession. Marvel Hum Chong attended Marcy and Wittier schools in Minneapolis during her elementary years and West High School in her first year of high school. She then moved to Hibbing, Minnesota, to live with her older sister and brother-in-law and graduated from Hibbing High School in 1927. She attended the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1931, and following graduation she worked as a hostess at John's Place Uptown and the Chinese Gift Shop, both Chinese-owned businesses in Minneapolis. In 1941 she married the owner of the Gift Shop, Stanley Chong, a Chinese immigrant's son from the West Coast. The shop was sold when Chong was drafted into the army for a brief period during World War II, and after his discharge the couple lived on the West Coast for a few years. In 1944 they moved back to Minneapolis and established the International House of Foods, a highly successful wholesale and retail business in Asian foods. Their daughter, Siu-linn, was born in 1946. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Marvel Hum Chong discusses her father's background in China and the United States - his varied interests in such fields as Christianity, Western law, and languages - his role as interpreter for Chinese in court in the Twin Cities - his part in the organizing of the Chinese Students Club, which included students from China at the University of Minnesota and the children of Chinese immigrants of high school and college age. She also discusses Chinese activities in the 1970 Aquatennial in Minneapolis - Chinese community organizations - and discrimination in housing for Chinese immigrants. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: This interview is particularly interesting because Marvel Hum Chong grew up in one of a half dozen intermarried families in the Chinese community in the Twin Cities during the pre-World War II days. She provides considerable insight into their experience as an interracial family.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

21. Interview with Mary Kim Bilek

Creator:
Bilek, Mary Kim
Date Created:
1979-03-02
Description:
Mary Kim Bilek was born June 13, 1938, in Seoul, Korea. Her mother was a teacher, and her father worked for a newspaper. During the Korean War (1950-1953) the family had to leave Seoul and with tens of thousands of other Korean civilians fled to the island of Cheju, a small island off the southern tip of Korea. During the years they were refugees on Cheju, Mary's mother and grandmother both died. In 1954 the family returned to Seoul, and at age fifteen Mary attended school regularly for the first time. Although her education had been disrupted, her two older brothers had also fallen behind, and all three children graduated from high school in the same year. As the only girl, Mary assumed she would not be sent to college and decided to try to go the United States to continue her education. Before the Korean War she had corresponded with a pen pal in North Carolina with the help of an American missionary in Korea. After the war she wrote to the pen pal again, and the American's family was able to arrange a scholarship for her at a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. She graduated with a major in physics and then entered the University of Minnesota for graduate study in mathematics. She completed her graduate work in 1963 and married a college friend, Larry Bilek, a Minnesotan, the same year. She worked as supervisor of statistics for medical services at the University of Minnesota Medical School until her first child was born in 1968. She then became part-time senior research analyst for the Minnesota Department of Health and was also employed in research in the medical school's department of neurology until her second child was born. In 1975 she was employed by the university's College of Liberal Arts as head of data services, and since then has become the college's budget and planning officer. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Mary Bilek discusses her family background in Korea - experiences during the Korean War - her first impressions of the United States - college life - concern for her children growing up in an affluent society - marriage to an American - and differences in childrearing practices in Korean and American cultures. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Mary Bilek represents Koreans who have become well-acculturated to American society, and is apparently equally comfortable with Americans and Koreans. Nevertheless she is committed to teaching her children certain Korean values that she considers important.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

22. Interview with Matthew and Gloria Woida, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Sauk Centre Township, Minnesota

Creator:
Woida, Gloria; Woida, Matthew
Date Created:
1979-02-13
Description:
Biographical Information: The Woidas were farmers and powerline opponents from Sauk Centre in Stearns County. Subjects discussed: Learning about the powerline project. Effect of the line on farm-placement of tower and position of line; spraying; irrigation; safety. The opposition-concerns of; involvement in; role of outside protesters in; effectiveness of. Working within the cooperative structure. Electricity-conservation; increased need; alternative methods for farmers; underground wiring; future problems with resources. Routing of line-alternative routes; wildlife land given priority. The role of and working with the media. Confrontations-with surveyors; arrests; lawsuits. Compensation by the utilities-easement; annual payment. Involvement of Governor Perpich. Mediation sessions. Costs resulting from the project-vandalism; hiring security quards; to citizens. Clean-up after the line. State government-relationship with utilities; legislators; views of working within the system. Coal mining. How controversy could have been avoided. Leadership role. Impact of lawsuits on opposition. Relationship of Indian movement and the powerline controversy. Iowa Coal scam. Public awareness of controversy.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

23. Interview with Matthew and Gloria Woida, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Sauk Centre Township, Minnesota

Creator:
Woida, Gloria; Woida, Matthew
Date Created:
1979-02-13
Description:
Biographical Information: The Woidas were farmers and powerline opponents from Sauk Centre in Stearns County. Subjects discussed: Learning about the powerline project. Effect of the line on farm-placement of tower and position of line; spraying; irrigation; safety. The opposition-concerns of; involvement in; role of outside protesters in; effectiveness of. Working within the cooperative structure. Electricity-conservation; increased need; alternative methods for farmers; underground wiring; future problems with resources. Routing of line-alternative routes; wildlife land given priority. The role of and working with the media. Confrontations-with surveyors; arrests; lawsuits. Compensation by the utilities-easement; annual payment. Involvement of Governor Perpich. Mediation sessions. Costs resulting from the project-vandalism; hiring security quards; to citizens. Clean-up after the line. State government-relationship with utilities; legislators; views of working within the system. Coal mining. How controversy could have been avoided. Leadership role. Impact of lawsuits on opposition. Relationship of Indian movement and the powerline controversy. Iowa Coal scam. Public awareness of controversy.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

24. Interview with Michael Hong Wong

Creator:
Wong, Michael Hong
Date Created:
1979-06-07 - 1979-07-03
Description:
Michael Hong Wong was born in Austin, Minnesota, in 1948. His grandfather emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China to Albert Lea, Minnesota, in 1927, by way of Canada and Seattle, Washington. At the time of Michael Wong's birth, his grandfather, father, and uncle were partners in a Chinese restaurant in Austin, but a few years later the family moved to Fargo, North Dakota. Because this city was a crossroad in the movement of military personnel during and after World War II, business opportunities were good, and the elder Wongs worked at the Pheasant Cafe, one of five Chinese restaurants in Fargo during the 1940s and early 1950s. When Wong was about five years old, the family moved back to Minnesota, where they established the Wong Cafe in Rochester. Wong attended public elementary schools in the city and graduated from John Marshall High School in 1966. He entered the University of Minnesota the following fall and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor of fine arts degree, majoring in painting. Later he returned to the university for graduate study and received a master of fine arts degree, with a major in photography, in 1975. During his undergraduate years at the university, Wong was actively involved in the Asian American Alliance, organized on the campus during the 1960s. In 1976 Wong returned to Rochester and worked in the family restaurant, while his wife, Isabel Joe, completed an internship in dietetics at Methodist Hospital. In 1977 they returned to the Twin Cities, and Wong taught for two years at the Minnetonka Art Center (now the Art Center of Minnesota). He also engaged in freelance photography and was one of the early members of the Minnesota Asian American Project, a pan-Asian organization in the Twin Cities area. In 1980 and 1981 Wong was employed by Weigen Graphic Center in Minneapolis and also continued his work as a freelance photographer. He has frequently photographed special events in the Asian community, including those of the most recent arrivals, the Indochinese. He also participated in the collection of photographs for an exhibit entitled Asians in Minnesota" that opened in the spring of 1982 at the Minnesota Historical Society and was sponsored by the Society
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

25. Interview with Nancy C. Barsness, Minnesota Powerline Oral History Project, Cyrus, Minnesota

Creator:
Barsness, Nancy C.
Date Created:
1979-02-20
Description:
Biographical Information: Barsness was a farmer from Cyrus, Pope County. She freelanced as a reporter on the powerline controversy for KMRS Radio and several newspapers in Pope County. Subjects discussed: Getting involved in the powerline controversy. Survey-conducting surveys; changes in second survey; results of; additional comments on. Working as a newsreporter. Darrell Mulroy incident. Runestone Electic Cooperative-trying to work with the co-op; members vs. board of directors; bylaws; reforming the structure; organizing special meeting; co-op as big business instead of representing the people; relationship to CPA. Relationship between CPA and UPA. Vandalism costs. Media-working with; overall handling of issue. Governor's involvement-role; working with him; science court. Opposition tactics. Impact of issue on self and people in the area. Issues for people in controversy-troopers; health and safety hazards; placement of towers; difficulty of communicating with utilities. Types of protesters and their issues. CPA and UPA impressions of the issues. Communicating with Bob Sheldon of CPA. Communicating with state officials and police. Working with opponents. Communication between protesters and utilities, governor, legislators. Turning points in protest.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories
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