Edward Rumely

Dr. Edward Rumely (1882-1964) was born in La Porte, Indiana, and earned his MD in Freiburg, Germany in 1906. Rumely's interest in progressive education lead him in 1907 to establish Interlaken School, founded in La Porte and then moved to Rolling Prairie, Indiana. Before the school closed in 1918 the thirteen year old Isamu Noguchi enrolled at Interlaken, and Rumely later placed Noguchi in a foster home in La Porte and became his first mentor. After Noguchi graduated from La Porte High School, Rumely arranged for his short apprenticeship with noted sculptor Gutzon Borglum, raised funds for Noguchi to attend Columbia University, and rented Noguchi his first sculpture studio in New York City. Rumely also ran his family agricultural machinery business, where he designed the successful Oil-Pull Tractor and aggressively expanded the company. Rumely was politically active on behalf of progressive causes, including the creation of credit corporations to assist farmers.  But his admiration for the efficiency and rationality of German economic policies led to political problems in America during World War One. In 1915 Rumely purchased The Evening Mail newspaper, and he was falsely accused and jailed for funding the acquisition with money from the German government.  Rumely remained politically active into the 1950s, and was a vocal opponent of the New Deal. Dr. Edward Rumely also assisted in various medical advances, including on the improvement of hearing aids and the promotion of cytology (the pap test) for early cancer detection, and he was an early opponent of cigarette smoking.

Adolescence in Indiana