Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

Figure 2
Sketch of Tacoma Pastures’s main building
In addition to Tacoma Pastures’s prior financial troubles, life in Tacoma Pastures was
not without its problems. Ms. Phyllis Rapone, Tacoma Pastures’s executive director,
started off as a dietician when she came to Tacoma Pastures in 1981. 14 When she first
arrived, the resident committee (referred to later on as the resident association) was in
her words “very strong.” She said: “The council members of the association were the
overseers; they ran the operations and made all the decisions regarding the food and
the activities without really getting everyone’s input.” She attributed their uncontested
power to the fact that most of them came from positions of local power and influence.
They were an independent body; Phyllis remarked that: “You had to be in that social
circle and have the right name to be in the association.” Phyllis started working at
Tacoma Pastures when those in power, ex-board members of the Joint Church Manors
and resident association officers, really started to age. They were pushing eighty years
old, and no one dared to say anything to them about ageing. Phyllis also stated that the
staff members who were working in the dining rooms had no management experience
let alone any background in nutritional science. She said: “Things were a lot more
14 I interviewed Phyllis Rapone on July 14, 2011.
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