Dr. Cluff Hopla was responsible for my travel from Honolulu to Norman, when he told Dr. Hubert Frings that I could receive a teaching assistantship at OU. I tried to return this favor by providing hours of entertainment for my fellow grad students. They received stories about Hawaii, and they laughed at a “Hawaiian’s” first encounter with snow outside Richards Hall.
Some of my Oklahoma experiences were very significant: Professors Carpenter, (Pat and Carl) Riggs, and Paul graciously invited a few of us “out of town” grad students into their homes on the holidays. I became hooked on birds when Dr. Sutton asked me to hold a bright red fox sparrow recovered from a mist net. When Dr. Clemens took a sabbatical, Richard Arrington and I taught the invertebrate zoology course (he the lectures; me the labs). Dr. Arrington’s equanimity, integrity, intelligence, and dignity inspired my later commitment to the civil rights movement. Dr. Riggs made it possible for me to spend two summers of productive research at the Station. I enjoyed an animal behavior course, despite Texoma heat and humidity. Dr. Carpenter introduced me to lizard behavior and kindly provided me with all the support I needed to complete a master’s thesis. I typed this thesis on an IBM selectric in the UOBS library (with A/C). As a result of these and so many other experiences, I left with a lasting memory of the kindnesses of OU’s faculty and students.
I moved to Boston to continue my studies. Influenced by the civil rights events of 1968, I changed my focus, and became a teacher in the Upward Bound Programs and in city schools. My mother’s serious illnesses sent me back to Honolulu where I taught biology, worked with my mother’s hematologist, and discovered Hawaii’s native wildlife. After her death, I returned to teach in Massachusetts, and later entered medical school. After residency training at Yale New Haven Hospital, I became a general internist at the (multispecialty) Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts. Here, I am able to teach patients, students, and medical residents. It is fun to see my patients’ eyes light up when I explain how salt water gargling is applied osmosis!
I married an (electrical) engineer and settled in Concord, MA, where many naturalists lived (e.g., Thoreau). I have been active in birding and conservation through the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Nuttall Ornithological Club. I continue to hunt treasures in New England homes/barns/flea markets, where your finds are as good as the knowledge you have. I am learning to paint watercolor landscapes, and am caring for an elderly aunt. But the best moments are when I can give back to the people/programs which have helped me: OU/UOBS, and U Hawaii/Honors Program’s Hubert and Mable Frings scholarship.
I’m learning that the energy and kindnesses we have received CAN be passed on. Julia Yoshida
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