103
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Title
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103
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Transcription
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WE MEET HOWARD FINCH
I often wonder if it is by accident, or design that we meet someone that changes our lives. I can understand how people we live with, influence our lives, but to meet some one for a short period of time, as ships passing in the night, that change life completely, seems to be nothing less than a miracle.
We were living in Longmont [sic] Colo. in March 1955. For more than a year I had been the Lay Leader for the Methodist Church in North Eastern Colo. On March 2, Verna and I were to attend a District Conference in Denver, and I was to meet the person that would be my assistant for the coming year. Dr. Howard Finch, the Director of the Agricultural Extension Service for Uni. of Colorado.
Dr. and Mrs. Finch had just completed a 2 year tour in Turkey, Howard had been Agricultural Advisor for the Food and Agricultural Organization, (FOA) under the Marshal Plan, the assistance program established in foreign countries following World War II.
I was not only interested in meeting Howard for the first time, but I wanted to know more of his experiences while in Turkey. Much of our time was spent talking about problems that Turkey had in Agricultural Development. My interest was in Irrigation and flood control projects.
After the conference Howard and I resumed our discussion of Turkey. As we were preparing to leave, Howard said to me, "Would you and Verna be interested in going to Turkey for two years?" The idea was intriguing and we said that perhaps we would be. His next statement was, " You might as well pack your duds." I thought it was a joke, I had worked for the Government for 10 years and left, because it was more often than not, "Hurry up and wait", that was one thing that prompted me to leave the Government Service.
Life after March 1955 would change completely for us. Two day after meeting Howard, I received a copy of a letter he had written to the Ministry of Agriculture in Turkey, a copy of a another letter that he wrote to the Director of the U.S. Agency in Turkey. Three weeks later I received a phone call from Washington, wanting to know if we could be ready to go to Izmir, Turkey, by June 1. I informed them that it would be impossible to make arrangements for someone to take over the business at that early date, but we could be ready by the middle of August.
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Metzger Memories
