East-West Center Oral History Project
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/70278
The East-West Center Oral History Project was designed to capture the Center’s first 50 years as seen through the eyes of staff, alumni, and supporters who have contributed to its growth. The project selected interviewees who represent the Center's diverse network over five decades and across the region and the institution itself. Presented on these pages are narratives, created from interview transcripts, that highlight the Center’s rich history of intellectual work, education, collaboration and friendship.
The oral histories were edited to make them more concise, which required consolidating and cutting material. The interviewers' questions have been removed and, where necessary, explanatory material inserted in brackets. We added conjunctive and transitional phrases and subheadings to enhance continuity, but otherwise no words were added to the narratives
The project made every attempt to reflect as accurately as possible the interviewees' recall of experiences and manner of speech and to preserve the content and character of the interviews. The narratives reflect interviewees’ personal perceptions, opinions and memories and may contain errors of fact. The narratives do not reflect positions or versions of history officially approved by the East-West Center.
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Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Kang Wu(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2009-03-26) Wu, Kang; Leber, TereseBorn and raised in China and schooled at Peking University, 20-year old Kang Wu came to the UH Economics Department in 1985, partially supported by an EWC research assistantship from Seiji Naya in the Resource Systems Institute. Later, as an EWC grantee and then as a research fellow, Wu worked with Ted James and Pearl Imada and then settled in with the energy arm of the Program on Resources: Energy and Minerals (PREM) headed by Fereidun Fesharaki.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Brent Watanabe(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2007-02-28) Watanabe, Brent; Leber, TereseBrent Watanabe was born and raised in Hawaii. In 1973, he was married and going to graduate school in counseling and guidance at the University of Hawaii when he took a job at the East-West Center as an Off-Campus Housing Specialist. Over the next thirty-five plus years, Watanabe has served as Housing Facilities and Services Officer, Housing Administrative Officer, and Housing Administrator. In 2001 he became Administrator of Support Services, overseeing management of the entire Center campus.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Lynette Wageman(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2007-02-22) Wageman, Lynette; Leber, TereseLynette Wageman is ethnically Indian and was born in Trinidad, West Indies. She went to college in Missouri where she worked as a student assistant in the library. Later, she and her husband lived in Germany during the raising of the Berlin Wall. Moving to Hawaii, Lynette got a job in East-West Center's infant library in 1962 under its first library director, Dr. G. Raymond Nunn. The library grew rapidly as an avalanche of materials arrived from Asia.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Patma Vityakon(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-05-22) Vityakon, Patma; Leber, TeresePatma Vityakon, born in Bangkok, went to New Zealand for her bachelor's and master's degrees in soil science on a Colombo Plan scholarship. Returning to Thailand in 1979, she immediately started teaching at the rural Khon Kaen University. Vityakon came to EWC in 1981 as a student grantee to get her Ph.D. studying the effects of soils on human nutrition. She was active in the EWC Participant Association and chaired the organizing committee for the 1984 International Fair.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Sarah Vann(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2005-12-29) Vann, Sarah; Tabusa, PhyllisSarah Vann, professor of library science at UHM since 1969, joined the Friends of the East-West Center with encouragement from her friend, Sumi Makey. In 1990 she became the Friends' president. In 1995, when the Center's International Visitors Program, originally conceived by the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC) was about to be cut due to the Centerwide reduction-in-force, Sarah took over this responsibility on a volunteer basis.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Murray Turnbull(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-05-10) Turnbull, Murray; Tabusa, PhyllisIn April 1959, Murray Turnbull (then Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UHM) headed a faculty committee which, in three days, wrote a proposal for a new International College of Cultural Affairs. The proposal, based on one Turnbull had written in February of that year, was accepted by University President Laurence Snyder. It served as a basis for a Hawai'i State Legislature bill, passed in July 1959, supporting planning and development of the East-West Center.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Ric Trimillos(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-04-11) Trimillos, Ricardo D.; Lee, Hyeon JuRic Trimillos is currently (2007) Professor and Chair of Asian Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Prior to that he was a professor in the UHM music department. ... Trimillos, a second-generation Filipino from San Jose, California, came to EWC in 1962 as one of its second class of students.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Greg Trifonovitch(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2009-05-04) Trifonovitch, Gregory J.; Leber, TereseGreg Trifonovitch was born in Palestine of Russian and Macedonian parents. He worked in Jerusalem as a waiter and tour guide for American tourists including the couple who eventually brought him to America. He joined the Army, got his US citizenship, and brought his family to America with the help of President Eisenhower and Senators Dirksen and Douglas.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Kenji Sumida(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2007-07-31) Sumida, Kenji; Tabusa, PhyllisKenji Sumida served as President of the East-West Center from 1995 to 1997. Appointed by the Board of Governors upon the departure of President Michel Oksenberg, Sumida shepherded EWC through a 50% reduction-in-force when Congress reduced the budget from $24 to $10 million. By 1997, Sumida and his management team had reduced fixed costs to within the bounds of the $14 million Congressional allotment for that year. During his tenure Sumida also worked to raise Congress's awareness of Center resources and to re-energize the Center's relationship with its alumni.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Alexander Spoehr(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 1975-08-26) Spoehr, Alexander; Ring, GordonIn 1961, the UH Board of Regents selected Alexander Spoehr to succeed the Center's first leader, Acting Chancellor Murray Turnbull. When he took office in early 1962, Spoehr's main job was "to get the show on the road." During Spoehr's tenure, the Center built its campus, launched its first organizational structure, and established its major support offices. In this 1975 interview, Spoehr notes the challenges of balancing the interests of the State Department, the U.S. Congress, the University of Hawaii, and the State of Hawaii.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Larry Smith(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-09-19) Smith, Larry E.; Sines, AbigailLarry Smith was born in Arkansas but his eyes were opened to the world when he answered President Kennedy's call to service and joined the Peace Corps. He served as an English teacher in Thailand for 4-1/2 years and then came to the University of Hawai'i to do an advanced degree. In 1970 he was invited to join the EWC staff to develop and implement programs for English as a Foreign Language administrators from Asian institutions.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Toufiq Siddiqi(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2008-10-28) Siddiqi, Toufiq; Tabusa, PhyllisToufiq Siddiqi grew up in undivided India in an academic family, was schooled in England and Germany where he obtained a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He helped to found the new field which studied the environmental impacts of energy at Indiana University and left a tenured position to join the brand new EWC Environment and Policy Institute (EAPI) in 1977.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Puongpun Sananikone(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2007-02-26) Sananikone, Puongpun; Sines, AbigailOriginally from Laos, Puongpun Sananikone was an East-West Center grantee majoring in economics in the mid-1960s, soon after the Center was established. He credits the Center's cross-cultural environment with shaping both his personal life and his career as an international development economist and business executive who has worked on every continent. In July 2008, Sananikone became the first East-West Center alumnus to be elected chairman of the EWC Board of Governors.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Gordon Ring(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2005-05-25) Ring, Gordon; Bottorff, BruceGordon Ring came to EWC in 1963 as a grantee and studied Chinese history at UH. After his grant ended, he spend the summer as a dishwasher in the EWC cafeteria which surprised many of his Asian friends. His professional career with EWC began in 1969 as Public Affairs assistant which included serving as the EWC photographer, developing his own film and caring for the dark room. He quickly moved into the Chancellor/President’s office where, from 1971-1983, he served as assistant to three Presidents: Everett Kleinjans, Lee-Jay Cho, and Victor Li.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Bob Retherford(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2009-10-09) Retherford, Robert D.; Leber, TereseBob Retherford, Coordinator of the Research Program's Population and Health study area, was a sociology graduate student and social activist at UC Berkeley in the 1960s when a Population Council fellowship led him into the field of population studies. Paul Demeny, director of the newly-founded East-West Population Institute, later recruited him, along with fellow Berkeley Ph.D. students Griff Feeney, Bob Gardner, and Geoff McNicoll.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Khalida Rashid(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-04-03) Rashid, Khalida; Berman, DanKhaleda Rashid, an EWC student from 1977-1981, obtained her Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning at UH followed by 5 months practical training in a local architectural consulting firm as an Assistant Architectural Planner.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral Project: Terry Rambo(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-06-15) Rambo, A. Terry; Leber, TereseA. Terry Rambo, joined the Environment and Policy Institute in 1980, serving as its Director (1992-97). He was EWC Representative in Vietnam from 1997-2000. ... He currently resides in Thailand where he serves as a Special Professor in the International Graduate Program on System Approaches in Agriculture of Khon Kaen University. He is also a visiting professor at Hanoi Agricultural University, Vietnam, and an EWC Adjunct Fellow in the Environment study area of the Research Program.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Vijayan Munusamy(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2005-10-14) Munusamy, Vijayan; Eguchi, CarolynComing to the Center from Bagan Serai, Perak, Malaysia as a degree fellow in 2001, Vijayan Munusamy quickly became a leader among EWC students. As president of the EWC Participants' Association, he initiated the 'Global Peace Circle' at the East-West Fest 2002, an event signifying multicultural understanding where 1000 student-made ti leaf leis were given to the public.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Butch Montes(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2010-07-01) Montes, Manuel; Tabusa, PhyllisManuel "Butch" Montes was born, raised and educated in the Philippines. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, he returned to teach at the University of the Philippines. In 1989, at the invitation of Resource Systems Institute director Seiji Naya, he joined the Center as its only macroeconomist.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.Item type: Item , East-West Center Oral History Project : Kuldeep Mathur(Honolulu, HI : East-West Center, 2006-04-15) Mathur, Kuldeep; Berman, DanFormer EWC grantee Kuldeep Mathur became so sick from his 18 hour flight from India to Honolulu in 1966 (his first plane ride) that he slept for nearly 3 days, scaring his roommate. Going to American Jesuit missionary schools in his home town of Jaipur, he was well acquainted with cowboy movies, American slang, and chewing gum but nothing prepared him for Hawaii.
Click on the PDFs to read more. Includes photograph, interview quotes, and the full interview narrative.
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