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

Developing and staffing the program 79to be kept in repair, and an emergency generating plant had to be operatedwhenever commercial electric power failed. An engineer was sought to serveas superintendent of property and to head the Buildings and Grounds Department.Loyd Johnson, the only trained engineer on the staff, was asked to conductthe search for a qualified Philippine engineer. He placed ads in Manila papersdescribing the position and the qualifications sought and stating that theperson hired would be paid 50 pesos a month more than his present salary.After screening the many applications received and conducting several interviews,Johnson decided that the top candidate was Hermenegildo G. Navarro,who had a degree in mechanical engineering. Wortman and I interviewed andhired him in 1961. Navarro was a man of unusual talents and much ingenuityand could identify with ease almost any mechanical equipment problem. Hecontinued to head Buildings and Grounds until retirement in 1976.ADMINISTRATIONAt this point, information on the backgroundsand contributions of the originalgroup of administrators I named in Chapter 1 seems appropriate.I had received my BS and Ph D degrees, respectively, from the Universityof Maine and the University of Maryland, majoring in horticulture (with aminor in soil science). In 1947, after 12 years as professor of Forest Soils atCornel1 University I became dean of the College of Agriculture and director ofthe Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire.Three years later I was elected president of that institution.During the latter part of my stay at Cornell, I was granted a one-year leaveof absence to serve as soil scientist in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Mexican,Agricultural Program. In 1954, I rejoined the foundation. After an initialperiod of travel in Asia, I was given responsibility for the foundation’sagricultural interests on that continent. My extensive travel to the rice-growingregions of Asia from 1955 to 1959 acquainted me with scientists and institutionsworking with rice. When it was decided that the Rockefeller Foundationwould provide the first director of IRRI, I was asked whether I would beinterested in assuming the post and I accepted with enthusiasm. The opportunitywas clearly one of rare challenge and interest.Wortman was equally enthusiastic about joining IRRI’s administrativestaff. His interest and optimism, like my own, were sustained at high level bythe excellent financial and moral support that IRRI received from theRockefeller and Ford Foundations. Not once did the two foundations fail toprovide the needed funds or encouragement to get IRRI off to a healthy start.Wortman was graduated from Oklahoma State University (in 3 years andat the top of his class), served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during WorldWar 11, and in 1950 received his Ph D degree in plant breeding and geneticsfrom the University of Minnesota. He then joined the Mexican AgriculturalProgram of the Rockefeller Foundation as a geneticist in charge of the maizeimprovement program. In 1955, he left Mexico to head the Plant BreedingDepartment of the Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii. As related earlier,