Granddad’s Indonesian Career
The Granddad had two tenures in Indonesia at the Bogor Agricultural School (Institut Pertanian Bogor – IPB) from 1968-1970 and 1980-1985. IPB became independent from the University of Indonesia in 1963, and Granddad’s work was instrumental in its reorganization as the first degree-granting agricultural school in Indonesia. In his first term, he created the 4-year undergraduate curriculum and set general education requirements, helping the university exceed its goal of 20,000 graduates by the year 2000. In his second term, he served as Director of the Graduate Education Project and began issuing doctoral degrees.
IPB was founded on a “tri-darma” of teaching, research, and extension, which matched the educational philosophy of the American land grant universities that trained Granddad. His design for the flagship Darmaga Campus was located on a Dutch rubber plantation and recognized that a university hosted not only research and faculty, but also students and their families. Therefore, it included classroom buildings, research and teaching fields, extension offices, residence halls and chapels. On a tour of the campus on Christmas Eve 2013, he was especially proud that the church and the mosque were located on the same courtyard sharing the same playground, that actual rubber, banana, rice, and corn fields for the students had been preserved, and that the library had been vastly expanded. He visited his IPB colleagues every year from his retirement at UW-Madison through his death in 2014 (pictured laughing in 2006, below).
Granddad talking about his career on our way to the IPB Darmaga Campus (December 2013)