An adventure in applied science - IRRI books - International Rice ...

22 History of the International Rice Research Institutefor lunch. After, with representatives of the College, the trustees visited thesites for IRRI’s research center buildings and staff housing.On 14 April, the trustees had an all-day session at the Trinity Building. Atthat meeting, I was appointed director of IRRI and Wortman assistant director;Letort was appointed treasurer effective on his arrival in the Philippines.Executive, Finance, and Program Committees were established and theirresponsibilities were defined.Although many matters were discussed at the first meeting, the mostsignificant action taken was the Board’s approval of the architects’ sketches ofthe buildings of the IRRI complex. To become acquainted with the abilities ofthe architects, the trustees had visited the Stanvac Refinery on Bataan Peninsulaon 12 April. Alfredo J. Luz had designed the refinery laboratory and officebuilding and Carlos D. Arguelles had been the architect for the residences. Thetrustees were favorably impressed with the buildings and felt that the staffhouses were of about the quality desirable for the residences to be erected atIRRI. The architects appeared before the trustees to explain their ideas and theBoard formally approved the selection of the architects, who until then hadbeen hired on a provisional basis. (Interestingly, although Standard Oil hadselected the same two architects, the coincidence did not become known to meuntil after I had made my initial recommendation to the foundations that Luzand Arguelles be retained as IRRI’s architects.) (See the section on architects,pages 25-26.)Before the 14 April meeting was adjourned, it was decided that a secondmeeting of the Board in 1960 would be required (the dates of 5-6 October werelater agreed upon). Their business completed, the trustees were dinner guestsat our house in San Lorenzo Village, a residential suburb of Manila where theWortmans and Letorts also lived pending the construction of the houses in LosBaños.At the October trustees meeting, Drilon was appointed secretary of theBoard and, because Letort had not yet arrived, Wortman continued to serve astreasurer. Drilon served as secretary as long as he remained at IRRI.The membership of the Board was by no means static. In February 1960,even before its first meeting, the replacement of Rodriguez as secretary ofAgriculture and Natural Resources by Cesar M. Fortich had been announced.By the second meeting of the Board, Rodriguez had resigned and Fortichattended the meeting. Fortich, however, did not remain long on the Board,because the Philippine presidential election in 1961 resulted in a change ofadministration. The new President, Diosdado Macapagal, selected BenjaminGozon as his secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In the normalcourse of political appointments, there was a succession of secretaries ofAgriculture and Natural Resources and consequently a corresponding successionof “ex-officio” Board members. By 1964, Jose Y. Feliciano had replacedGozon. In 1967, Gozon was followed by Fernando Lopez, who served PresidentMarcos as both Vice President and secretary of Agriculture and NaturalResources. Lopez was succeeded in 1971 by Arturo R. Tanco, who is still on theIRRI Board of Trustees, having held the post of secretary of Agriculture