Minor's Diggings column, The Record [Stockton, CA], Mar 6 1965, P. 12, Cols. 1-2, with photo
[Note: The article mis-spells the last name of Harry Theocharides throughout.]
"A former Stockton man is helping Greece utilize California 'know how' to become, hopefully, a major food supplier for Europe.
He is Harry Theocrades, who in 1950-60 was an engineer at the International Harvester farm equipment works here, and now is head of the industrial training department at a Greek vocational high school. I learned of Theocrades' role in Greek agricultural ambitions through the visit of Bruce M. Lansdale, director of the American Farm School at Thessaloniki, where Theocrades teaches. The school strives to develop farm leaders for agricultural areas.
Born 45 years ago of Greek ancestry, Theocrades fled with the rest of his family as refuges from his native country, Turkey. His father, educated at Edinburgh, taught English at the American Farm School in 1923-43.
This provided the environment for young Theocrades' interest in agricultural engineering, his major subject at Cornell University after World War II and before he came to Stockton.
Theocrades, active in St. Basil's Greek Orthodox Church here and the church parish council president, married a Stockton resident, the former Mary Cassavetes, and they and their two children, Nicholas, 8, and Terry, 5, went to Greece in 1960 when he joined the school's faculty.
AS AN ENGINEER, Theocrades is helping develop some of the machinery to specifications useful in Greek agriculture.
While garlic is not a major Greek crop, it exemplifies some of the development work under way in that country, reports Lansdale. After the president of the Northern California vegetable dehydrating firm visited the Greek school, he sent an employe there to help in the school's experimenting with various types of cultivators and harvesters, and in importing garlic from nearby countries as part of varietal investigations.
'Our job in the American Farm School is to help provide the pilot test—the demonstration project,' reports Lansdale.
At times, the school has been a bit ahead of its times. Seven years ago, it set up an American-made mechanical cotton picker in the agricultural section of the American pavilion, but Greeks scoffed at the idea. Now, the Greek Ministry of Agriculture is beginning experiments with two mechanical pickers.
...
The American Farm School, started 60 years ago in a two-room mud and brick hut surrounded by a few acres, now has nearly 50 buildings over a 400-acre campus. There are 200 Greek farm boys enrolled in a four-year course designed to equip them to assume leadership in their own farming communities. Subjects include English, chemistry, physics, history, mathematics, and geography, besides various agricultural courses. There also are 1,500 adults enrolled in short courses to meet specialized needs.
As the name indicates, the school depends heavily on contributions from U.S. friends. It also charges nominal tuition and sells its surplus farm products.
Theocrades, who visited friends in Stockton about a year ago, plans to remain in Greece. He recently signed a 20-year contract to teach at the school."