<Begin Segment 5>

LD: Your daughter later had a little run-in with her college, too. What happened with your daughter?

HF: My daughter, Alice, was an activist. And growing up as a teenager, she was attending Stanford University at the time, as you know, well, Stanford is a private institution. She felt very, very strongly about the statement made by Professor Sharpley, the Nobel Laureate of transistor fame about eugenics and the superiority of the white race. My daughter and her friends, including blacks and Chicanos, a force of approximately twenty-five, according to Stanford, "invaded the sanctity of the professor's classroom," and challenged the good old professor to a public debate on the topic of eugenics and the superiority of the white race. Well, the judicial committee of Stanford University at the time took Professor Sharpley's complaint into consideration and summarily fired, or dismissed Alice from Stanford University just one week away from graduation. In fact, I recall receiving an invitation to attend the commencement exercise. A week later, of course, we got word that Alice as dismissed. And so she remained on the suspension list for three years, after which time she was reinstated and she completed her degree in pre-medicine.

[Interruption]

LD: You were talking about how your daughter got thrown out of Stanford. When you heard that, how did you hear that? You got a letter, got a call?

HF: Yes, got a letter, and obviously a call from my daughter, Alice.

LD: Tell me about it. You got a call, what did she say to you, what did you say to her, and what was your reaction?

HF: Alice, upon learning that she was dismissed from Stanford, immediately got one the phone and informed us of that fact.

LD: How did she tell you? I want to know what she actually said to you. Was she upset, was she apologetic, was she a little scared of what you would feel? How did she talk to you about it? What did she say? "Dad, I messed up"? What did she say.

HF: Alice took it rather calmly as I recall. Obviously she was upset that she was dismissed and she could not finish her pre-med curriculum. But then she knew that she had the support of her parents about her views, and subsequently, of course, we went to bat on her behalf and challenged her dismissal through court proceedings.

LD: What did you and your wife say to your daughter? She knew you would back her?

HF: Yes, because she knew how we thought.

LD: She knew you thought what?

HF: We thought about --

LD: "Alice knew..."

HF: Alice knew that her parents felt very strongly about the equality of all races, and that the professor involved in this case really had no basis to claim that the white race was superior to all other races.

LD: So then you and your wife went to the mainland?

HF: Yes. And to back up our conviction that she acted properly in this case, we did go to the mainland, to San Francisco, tried to retain the services of one law firm, and we did not get very good vibes out of this particular law firm, so we went to another. And the rapport established with this other firm -- I can't recall the name of the firm right now -- was great, and we retained this particular lawyer to represent our daughter in court. Consequently, of course, the hearing came up and Alice did lose the case based on the fact that Stanford was a private institution.

LD: At a public institution it might have been different?

HF: And I felt that if Stanford were a public institution such as the University of California Berkeley, her chances of winning the case would have been much greater.

LD: Looking back on what it cost, that she was out money for three years, she couldn't go back to school for three years and everything, how do you feel about it? How do you feel about it and how do you think she feels about what she did?

HF: When the incident occurred, obviously it was a telling blow, it was a disappointment to all of us. But as I look back through all these years, I feel that it was a tremendous learning experience for Alice. Don't get me wrong, Alice still remains an activist to this very day, but that is championing the cause of the underprivileged, of the underdog, and of the Asian, black and Chicano causes. But I believe that she learned that a frontal attack on these very sensitive issues sometimes did not get the desired end result. And I think she has become a lot smarter, a lot wiser, through the intervening years.

LD: You backed her?

HF: Yes, all the way.

LD: That was an expensive school, too.

HF: Well, we could hardly afford the expense at that time, legal expenses, but we still felt that the cause was worth it.

LD: She then went into, she continued into medicine, she went into medicine? What did she do?

HF: Well, because she believed in the cause of the underprivileged classes of races in America, to the extent of personal involvement, she did get married to a black person, a very intelligent, kind black person. And after that, of course, the family began to grow, and she had to support the family while Mike was attending college. And she has done this through all the years. Presently she's at Harvard managing a cancer research lab for one of the prominent professors, who has charge of about twenty-five graduate students. But when Alice visited the family last year, last summer for a family reunion, she indicated an interest in medicine again. And subsequently she has been taking refresher courses at Harvard University in preparation for reentry into medical school, and this is what she's doing at the present time, it's very encouraging.

LD: She's a spunky person, isn't she?

HF: Yes, very much so.

LD: You're proud of her.

HF: Definitely very proud of her accomplishments, and particularly of her stance, or stand, where human issues, human right are concerned.

LD: Because of the way you raised her.

HF: Yes. My wife perhaps more than I, because of her religious background and of her tolerance of other races. Perhaps tolerance is the wrong term to use, understanding of other races. And perhaps it's the reason why she married me in the first place.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.