Archives and Videos Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
FMH-V1010 |
Object Name |
Video, Digital |
Description |
Oral history, Part 1, by William Frank "Frank" Larway (1933-2019). The video continues in FMH-V1011. Run time is approximately 50 minutes. Laraway discusses his family, early life in Fairhope, Alabama, education at the Marietta Johnson of Organic School, and later career and travels. He describes his parents' move from the Northeast, their poultry and dairy farm operations in Fairhope, and childhood chores such as milking cows, raising chickens, and delivering eggs and milk. He provides vivid details of early schooling, teachers, and the Organic School's emphasis on nature study, arts, crafts, music, and folk dancing. Laraway recounts post-high school experiences including working in the Quaker community in Monteverde, Costa Rica, attending Talladega College as the first white student at an Alabama Black college, working in a mental hospital in Iowa, and attending Guilford College in North Carolina. He describes summer jobs, including work in an Atlanta chemical plant, before graduating in philosophy and math in 1956. He then worked as a lab technician at the University of Michigan Hospital's Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Lab, assisting with assays for insulin, aldosterone, and other metabolic studies. Eventually, Laraway pursued his long-standing interest in architecture, securing admission to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin fellowship, where he performed various chores, served meals to the Wrights, and drew connections between Wright's "organic architecture" and the Organic School philosophy. From the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives, Fairhope Museum of History Collection. |
Video link |
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People |
Laraway, William Frank, Jr. (1933-2019) Laraway, Margaret Laraway, Emily Butgereit, Roy Horn, Richard Dougherty, Edward Gardner "Ned" (1871-1951) Dougherty, Edward C. (1835-1918) Dyson, Helen Porter (1908-2011) Johnson, Marietta Pierce (1864-1938) Cain, Kenneth Gaston, Olive Wood "Piney" Lowell, Jim Rockwell, David Wallace, Kenneth Elmore Campbell, David A. Wright, Frank Lloyd |
Search Terms |
Oral Histories Interviews Dairy Farm Organic School Education Architecture Employment |
Title |
Frank Laraway Oral History Video, Part 1 |