604 Hallam C. Shorrock, Jr. & Familg
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
| My bride, Helen Savage Shorrock and I, came to Japan in 1947 as United Church (Kyodan) - related missionaries sent by The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Until 1963 we were primarily engaged in postwar reconstruction work which initially involved high school teaching (Seigakuin, Tokyo), nation-wide church youth work, and especially international student work camps. Subsequently I became the director of the Church World Service programs in Japan and Korea, and then for two years served as the Asia Secretary of the World Council of Churches' Inter-church Aid & Refugee Program. In 1962 I accepted President Nobushige Ukai's invitation to become ICU's Vice President for Financial Affairs and Finance Trustee. My wife and our family of five children - Karen, Tim, Theodore (Terry), Michael and Judy - arrived on the ICU campus from Geneva, Switzerland in April 1963, when I began a six year term as VPF. It was during this period that the first plans for a "House of Dialogue" were developed and that the University of California System-wide Education Abroad Program decided to establish its first Asian Study Center on the ICU campus. The on-campus experiences of each member of the Shorrock family during those years are unforgettable, and many were related to the old shokudo. Our children especially remember the Sunday lunches after church when they particularly enjoyed curry rice or zaru soba and Fanta, an informal concert by Pete Seeger, Christmas Advent celebrations in front of the blazing fireplace, and the like. Helen was an active member of the ICU faculty wives' group and Church Fujinkai and was always a gracious hostess. Following 17 years (1970-1987) as an Associate Director of the UC-EAP based in Santa Barbara, I, in a pre-retirement position to which I was called as President Yasuo Watanabe's Special Assistant and the 1st Dean of International Affairs, returned to ICU with Helen for a four-year period (1986-1990). I was responsible for the launching of the Study English Abroad (SEA) Program and for the existing international student exchange program. In October 1990 Helen and I joined the Pilgrim Place retirement community in Claremont, California. I then served for ten years as a Board member of the New York based Japan ICU Foundation. After Helen's death in 2001, I re-met and later married Yasuko Fukada, the daughter of the Kokubunji Church pastor where Helen and I had taught an English Bible Class fifty-five years earlier. I, and my family as well as ICU colleagues, were soon surprised to learn that she had preceded us all on the ICU campus when during the war she, with other Japanese high school students, set foot in the present "Honkan," for defense work training. The Honkan was then the Nakajima Aircraft Company's main building. This named-room contribution is given as an expression of me and my family's deep gratitude for how meaningful my work and our lives were during our years on the ICU campus, and the privilege of my later service as a JICUF board member. November 29, 2010
Hallam C. Shorrock, Jr. |
DONORS
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