My father did not tell me much about himself, nor did I ask him much about himself, but I will tell you what I can. My father's name was William Wilson Sampson. He went by his middle name, but I am not sure why. The first name of his brother was Woodrow. My middle name also is Wilson, so I indirectly am named after President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. We are descendants of a brother of Henry Samson, who come over on the Mayflower ("Sampson" is a variation of "Samson"). Besides his brother, who was younger than he, he had three younger sisters, two of whom were twins. My grandmother came from Krakow, Poland, to the United States of America with her family when she was a teenager. (As a punster, I have to say that, since Krakow is in southern Poland, I am a south Pole.) My grandmother was a Harvey Girl ( a waitress in a Harvey House) when she met my grandfather, who worked for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. My father was born in February, 1913, in Barstow, so his parents probably met at the Harvey House in Barstow, the Casa del Desierto. Many Harvey Girls married Santa Fe employees. When my father was six years old, his father left the Santa Fe, and the family moved to the Seattle area. They lived in more than one place in the area. Later, they moved to Richmond; my father attended Richmond High School. My father graduated from Cal. I do not know what his major was, but I do know that he took Army ROTC. He got a Ph.D. in entomology at Cal; he did not get an M.A. He was in the Army during World War II, entering the Army as a first Lieutenant, and leaving the Army as a captain. He was sent to Italy. He was a sanitarian, being in charge of health first in Naples, then in Milano, then in Torino. At some point, he worked for the MacFarlane's (I am not sure of the spelling) candy shop on what I suppose would be upper Broadway in Oakland. I do not remember what his title was, but he was in charge of health. One of his duties was to fumigate the imported nuts. [After leaving Cal, my father began working for the Oakland Health Department, which merged into the Alameda County Health Department. He was a vector control specialist. He retired in August, 1978. He later was a part-time consultant for the health department for awhile. He died in August, 1985.] We moved from Richmond to Lafayette in February, 1953. My parents moved to Antioch in January, 1981. My father liked trains a lot, as do I. He remembered riding in the cab of a steam locomotive when he was a kid. My father liked classical music a lot. Once around ten years ago, when I was looking at an Alameda County Health Department display at the Alameda County Fair, I met a lady from the Health Department. I think that she was a vector control specialist. I said that my father was W. W. Sampson, and she said that papers of his were in their library. Maybe you can use some of this. If I find more information that you might be able to use, I will send it to you. --Clifford [Sampson] by email September 17, 2009 |
