<Begin Segment 19>

KB: Did you start to join different organizations like bowling teams and different things like that?

SO: Yeah, bowling teams are around '51, '50. I started bowling at Eastside Bowling Alley, then I stopped for going to college. I graduated high school in '49, so I went to Vanport College in, '49, '50, and '50, '51. And then I transferred to Oregon State in pre-pharmacy in '51, '52. I stayed out of college for two years, and then went back and finished and graduated in 1956, I got my pharmacy degree.

KB: When you were at Vanport, were you studying to be a pharmacist at that time?

SO: Yes, pre-pharmacy. You take your science courses.

KB: And why did you decide to become a pharmacist?

SO: Because I was a sickly person, and I was young, so my mom said I should go into some kind of medical field. So that's what I did.

KB: Did your mom get to see you become a pharmacist?

SO: No.

KB: But she encouraged you, she supported you to become one.

SO: Yeah.

KB: Where did you work after you got your degree?

SO: I had internship every year at the Plummer Drug and the Apothecary, which is a drugstore.

KB: In Portland?

SO: In Portland, (yes). Then I got registered, and I worked at the Medical Arts Pharmacy, Payless Drugs on Broadway and Washington, and then worked for Alameda Pharmacy which was on Twenty-third and Fremont, I believe. And they moved to Lloyd Center and became the Lloyd Center Pharmacy in 1960 when Lloyd Center opened up. But then I decided that was going to... I went up to Anchorage, Alaska, because my brother-in-law was going to build a medical building. He was thinking of building a medical center in Anchorage, Alaska, so I moved up there. But it didn't pan out, and so I came back to Portland. And the pharmacist at Apothecary had wanted to buy another drugstore, so he wanted me to come back and manage the store. So that's when I went into partnership, and we bought the Nolan Rexall Drug. And I was there for about thirty-five years.

KB: And were you, when you talk about a partnership, did you do most of the work or did you... kind of a silent partner?

SO: Yeah. I did, (yes), I was the pharmacist in charge there, and then I bought him out in about five years or ten years.

KB: That's a long time, thirty-five years.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.