Adolescence In Indiana (1918-1922)

After growing up in Japan, at age thirteen Isamu Noguchi was sent to America for schooling. He arrived by ship in Seattle and made his way alone by train to the Interlaken School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, run by inventor and progressive educator Dr. Edward Rumely . Within months of his arrival, however, the school was converted to a military facility and closed. With nowhere else to go, Isamu remained at the school living with the caretakers. Dr. Rumely eventually placed him in a foster home in nearby La Porte, in the household of Swedenborgian minister Dr. Samuel Mack. Going by his mother's name of Gilmour, Isamu attended La Porte High School, and he seems to have had a typical small town American experience, paper route and all. Dr. Rumely encouraged Isamu to become a doctor, and Rumely raised the funds that enabled him to enter the premedical program at Columbia University, New York City, in the fall of 1922.

Chronology