INITIAL COLLECTION SUPPORTERS

This project was made possible by support from the Northern Marianas Humanities Council (NMHC) (November 2015 - May 2016), a nonprofit, private corporation funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Work since that date has been funded by Kit and Bill Van Meter.
Several people also helped with the preservation of this collection. We could not have reached some of our goals without the help of the following people:​
  • Greg Porter, my first husband, took many of the photographs 1967-69 and 1975-76, when he lived on Rota and Saipan.  He also spoke on some of the audiotapes during that time period and wrote some of the letters as identified in the inventory.
  • Lisa Porter, my daughter, took some photographs, wrote some letters, and helped with project contents between 1975-1983, when she lived on Saipan.  From 1983 to the present she provided ongoing encouragement and support, helping select books for the collection, moving boxes, discussing ideas and always being willing to help.
  • Jeanne & Oscar Jarmon, my parents, communicated on audio tapes and letters and kept all these materials until they gave them to me.  They stored boxes for years and supported my traveling and collecting lifestyle.  My mother visited Saipan and Rota.
  • David Jarmon, my brother, communicated on audiotapes and in letters and provided general help over the years.  He and his wife, Karen, visited Saipan.
  • Emily & Gene Porter, my in-laws, communicated on audio tapes and letters and kept audio tapes and materials sent to them until they went to Lisa and then to me in Oct 2017.
  • Donna, Alex & Angelo O’Connor Villagomez were family on Saipan and later.   They stored some of the boxes, shared their home while I wrote and were always encouraging and ready to discuss ideas.
  • Cornelia & Joe Tierney shared their home and warmth with me, and supported me as I researched and wrote about Northern Marianas College.
  • Isaac Calvo & family guided me with wisdom and caring, on Rota and Saipan, both professionally and personally.
  • Carmen Taimano & family adopted me as part of their family on Rota in the 60s and later on Saipan - sharing our daily lives and caring about multilingual multicultural education in the Northern Marianas Islands.
  • David Kuechle, my Harvard adviser, encouraged me to focus my dissertation on aspects of establishing Northern Marianas College and worked with me for years while I sorted materials and turned ideas into a written document. 
  • Scott Russell, Northern Marianas Humanities Council, encouraged doing something with all the materials.  He came to my home to digitize and realized the materials took up a small building and a major effort was needed.  He encouraged me to write a proposal for assistance.
  • Rosemary Casey, Returned NMI Peace Corps Volunteer, visited my home in August 2015 and helped with preparing to digitize boxes and planning for the project.
  • Bill Van Meter, my husband, has never complained about the space all these materials take, the time I spend working on the project, the focus not given to home matters, and the cost involved.  He shares ideas, reads drafts and handles financial matters.
  • All the speakers on audiotapes, writers of letters, people in pictures, makers of arts/crafts, authors of documents, friends and adopted families contributed over the years to this project.  These will be identified as the web site develops.
  • John Fede, (Audio Video Recovery Systems, Natick, MA, USA) and Michael Sousa successfully digitized reel to reel and cassette audiotapes.  The oldest of these were 50 years old and all but a few were successfully digitized and thus are being used as a basis for stories.
  • Scan Café, Michael Sousa and Scott Russell digitized slides and pictures.
  • Michael Sousa digitized documents and letters as selected in boxes; hopes are that there will be support to digitize more. Many are old, faded, mimeographed and fragile. Michael also manages and updates the website in his spare time.