International House Berkeley

66 Marion Ross 1946-1951 I first went to the I-House in September 1946. How did I find out about I-House? I met a woman at a bus stop who had lived in I-House when it was located in the fraternity houses during the war; her name was Mary Kopriva. We started talking, and she told me that I-House was the most wonderful place in the world – why didn't I live there? Well, at that time housing was very, very scarce – there was only one women's dorm and one men's dorm. The men's dorm was Bowles. The women's dorm was built in about 1942. So, with all the returning servicemen, the housing was very, very scarce. I had never heard of the International House, but I thought, "Why not?" We were fed in the auditorium; I don't know why the dining room was not ready. We stood in a line, running down Bancroft, for lunch. That turned out to be my very first meeting with anybody, and it was with the man who was standing in front of me in line. I remember it was a hot day; he turned around and said, "My name is Elliott Castello, what's yours?" It was a warm welcome. So I remember the I-House as being a very friendly place. I had a roommate from Oregon – Ruthie Farmer. I walked into this biggish double room, and on a bed there was a pile of clothes which Ruth had spent the summer making. She was a farm girl and a member of 4H – a farm organization for teenagers. There was one closet, and, according to Ruthie, I said, "We need another closet." Whereupon, I got on the bus and went to Capwell's. I got a cardboard – I can see it now – a cardboard chest, you know – heavy cardboard pieces you put together. We stuck it in the corner for my few clothes – consisting of two gabardine suits, a linen dress with a wide belt, and a cotton dress. At first I thought, "Hmm...." But Ruthie turned out to be a wonderful, wonderful roommate! She later married an I-House resident, Bob Feinberg, who was a city boy from Chicago. I last saw her and Bob about ten years ago. He gave up his academic career, and they are in the antique business now. I had a little gathering here – it was summer time, but there were about a dozen of us. My experience at I-House was wonderful! I lived in the I-House from 1946-1951, except I was gone in the spring of '48 and came back in the fall of '48. So I bridged quite a few people, because a good many people only came for the one year of '46-'47. What are my recollections of people who were close to me in the I-House? Abbas Ghessalayogh. We called him Kessel. He was older, he was an Iranian, and he was wise. He gave me tutorials on the Koran, and I read the Koran. I had never known anybody from the Middle East. There were great many Egyptians. One was Osman El-Mufti, who was extremely empathetic and had great dreams for Egypt. One of the people whom I knew that first year was Bob Wijsman, a Dutchman, who later married Gertrud Zierau, a Dane. By establishing, with Bob Milligan, a shop named

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