<Begin Segment 9>

HH: Oh, that reminds me. You started a bank, too?

TM: Yeah. [Laughs] No, I didn't start it all by myself, but I had a ten percent interest in it. And I was organizing director for Moorestown First National Bank. And then I eventually went on as a dealer for, or rather as a board member of the First National Bank of South Jersey, which was a larger bank. That eventually sold to Fidelity. And by then, I was on the bank, the Farm Credit Bank board, Springfield Bank. And so they said, "You can't be on a commercial bank board." And I said, "If you had told me that, I wouldn't have taken the position in the first place." But anyhow, that's one of the things I've done. I've been involved in a lot of different things, and it's been...

HH: And you're meeting, too.

TM: Huh?

HH: You were on the board of your school.

TM: I'm still. I'm a board member emeritus. Fred is actually the clerk of the trustees.

HH: I see.

TM: And I think he took on more than he should. [Laughs]

HH: Did you learn from somebody else?

TM: No. I didn't take on a longtime thing, almost all the buildings that are built around Moorestown from the time our kids started to go to school, all those buildings, I was chairman of Building [inaudible]. So we built a lot of buildings around Moorestown, then we built this thing here. Medford Lees, I was involved in building this thing. So at the time we were building Medford Lees in 1970, '71, I guess when we started, I had a lousy apple crop. So I was able to start to undertake this thing. And then as I turned out, I spent more time here than I did farming for about three or four years. Really, this thing here took a lot of work.

HH: Did you know at that time that you were going to become a resident here?

TM: I probably did, yeah. In fact, the reason why this Bridlington exists here is because there was a railroad track right over here. In fact, we got pictures of the train running down that railroad track when we first started here. And we figured that that was pretty good buffer for this particular ground right here. And as the single family homes, as they are being built over there, we thought that you can't buy the whole world. We thought it'd be okay, then we found out someplace along the line, about six years ago, now seven years ago, we found out that they were gonna build two hundred and fifty condominiums here. And I thought to myself, five hundred kids? Old people don't want kids. It's a funny thing, the old people just say, "We've done our share with kids, leave them the heck out of our hair." So anyhow, I could imagine kids wandering over. We became aware, I think Sam Decue indicated that we could buy this ground, so we bought it. And you know, I'm kind of in the real estate business if you own farms and buying 'em and selling 'em. So we paid a million dollars for just under a hundred acres here. And then after we bought it, says, "Now what do we do with it?" That's when we built Bridlington. Said, well, we can do this and still not overload our medical facilities. And then one year later, I sold the other half for a million bucks. So this land here was free almost. We've done a few things like that. [Laughs] In our personal lives, we've done a few things like that. This one here, all to the advantage of Medford Lees. I've got to make a pitch for Medford Lees, okay?

HH: Go ahead.

TM: Medford Lees, our budget is about fourteen million. We don't have any debt, and we got about twelve million bucks in the kitty to help people as help is needed. And we have not gone out to try to raise these funds, but people keep leaving us money. Either leaving us money or even while they're alive, they give us money. And almost every board meeting, almost every board meeting, somebody's giving us money. And we've got to accept it. You do have to sign a piece of paper saying we'll take it.

HH: I see. Well, thank you very much. This was, your life story and things that you've done have really...

TM: Well, I've been, the other thing is that I've been involved in a lot of things, agricultural circles in the state. So I've gotten lots of recognition for doing that kind of thing. I've got all kinds of plaques. Well, the other thing, you know I got a kunsho, you know that, don't you?

HH: Yes. Would you describe that?

TM: Kunsho is a decoration from the emperor of Japan. And I've been very fortunate to be awarded that, which I certainly expect, but kind of nice to have a...

HH: Was this very specific or was it kind of a generation citation that went with it? Was it your accomplishment at the agriculture?

TM: No, I don't think... well, I don't know. We get Japanese people coming here to study Medford Lees.

HH: I see.

TM: And that may be part of it. And of course I've been involved in the public life around, not just Nisei, but the general state of New Jersey, some of that, I guess was involved.

HH: You've done a lot since...

TM: Yeah, I've had an interesting life. If I died now, I wouldn't care. [Laughs]

HH: Since Livingston and California, a lot has changed.

TM: Yeah, not very many people have developed and owned a fruit farm in one generation. It's usually more than a one-generation business. Anyhow, it's been a lot of fun.

HH: Thank you very much.

TM: Okay.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.