Today, Sunday, 28 July 1935, SRO's Birthday – Differently, how to retell a story already told twice? On Santiago Rigonan Obien, Rice Guru: How do you relate a story already told in 2 books in 582 pages?
Use your imagination!
I used more to come up with a 3rd book. My brainstorming and typing gave me Draft #1, 258 pages, in 2 months out of 2 earlier books, autobiography and compilation of compliments from family, friends, and colleagues of SRO. Completely different. Also Ilocano, also an original aboriginal!
It was also a Sunday when SRO was born in Ilocos Norte. Up to high school, he studied there; for his BSA he attended the University of the Philippines' College of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna; and for his MS and PhD degrees the University of Hawaii East-West Center in Honolulu.
SRO's official journey as a science manager, for which he did not study, began in 1977 when ground was broken for the Philippine Tobacco Research & Training Center, PTRTC buildings and President Ferdinand Marcos appointed him PTRTC Director there on the campus of the Mariano Marcos State University, MMSU, where the PTRTC buildings were built.
SRO has been an innovator. Like, at the PTRTC, he introduced the bright idea of engaging the better tobacco growers themselves as trainors in formal and informal settings.
From 1977, he managed, in different scales of engagement, the PTRTC, MMSU, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Postharvest Research & Extension, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice. All successfully, with PhilRice being his greatest innovative story. (What dimensions of leadership did SRO have? All in my book.)
In the meantime, also to give importance to today, I'd like to continue using parallel events on July 28 in history; my source is On This Day (onthisday.com).
This day in 1935 was the first flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, whose prototype crashed. In SRO's case, we can consider as prototype the PTRTC, whose presidential decree SRO himself drafted, because there was no agency like it. But this one did not crash – in fact, SRO received awards for the successes of the PTRTC in improving the tobacco growers' lives.
In 1858, July 28 saw the first use of fingerprints as a means of identification of people, by Sir William James Herschel of the Indian Civil Service. In the case of SRO, you saw his fingerprints all over the place when he left handwritten "Love Notes" (Happy) or "Rub Notes" (Harsh) on your experimental plots or your office desk late at night or early in the morning. He did that at PhilRice in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Those notes were first hated and then later on welcomed, because they helped shape research staff as intelligent scientists.
On this date in 1790, Henry James Pye was appointed British Poet Laureate by King George III. SRO is not a poet, but he loves reciting poetry, singing and reading popular & technical literature. Because SRO became a science manager par excellence:
I must conclude that art helps science managers become great!@517
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