Roy W, Simonson A Century as a Soi Scientist

摘要

Roy Walter Simonson was born September 7, 1908 on a farm in North Dakota about 16 miles from the Canadian border. His Norwegian immigrant family homesteaded the land a scant decade earlier. Largely by luck, they settled in durum wheat country, which was their staple crop for most of the 20th century. Roy, then known as Walter, was the second of eight siblings, including his late brother Cliff, an emeritus geography professor at Northern Illinois University. Roy was fully occupied with the activitiesany boy growing up on a horse-powered farm would have experienced. Norwegian was his primary language until he started first grade in a one-room schoolhouse about 2 miles from the farm. He passed the state exams for eighth grade after five years and headed off to high school in the nearby town of Bisbee at the ripe old age of 11. Roy was often a reluctant student, but his parents Otto and Johanna (Jennie) Simonson made sure he did well in school. Once they put his shotgun away during duck hunting season when he got a failing grade on an exam in plane geometry; after that, his performance improved significantly. Roy graduated from high school at the age of 16 and kept working on the farm.