User:Salvaperez

He was born a Kiwi (a New Zealander) in Masterton, New Zealand on April 14, 1927, and he is still a Kiwi by New Zealand law, although He became a naturalized United States citizen many years ago in order to have the right to vote in US elections and, hence, voice his political opinions in a meaningful way. His father, an engineer, was unemployed for four years during the Great Depression which hit New Zealand rather severely in the early 1930s. Since jobs were believed to be more plentiful in the vicinity of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, located at the bottom of the North Island, he and his family moved to Lower Hutt a few miles from Wellington. There his two older brothers and his elder sister were able to find jobs while he and his younger sister were still at primary school. His parents set the stage for nurturing a warm, loving united, mutually supportive family who always pulled together and also helped others outside the family in need when necessary. Although they did not have too much food, his mother was always inviting other, less fortunate people to meals. On such occasions, his older brothers and sister would frequently remind him and his younger sister at meals not to ask for more food by saying to us out loud at the table, "FHB," which meant, "Family Hold Back," i.e., don't eat too much! They had no phone or refrigerator. In one of the houses they lived in Lower Hutt, their hot water came from water pipes embedded in the brick at the back of the open fireplace in the living room. This resulted in their weekly bath night - where the younger children used the bath water from the older children, to which we were allowed to add more hot water if any still remained! For most of his time at primary school, he went to school barefooted, like most of the other kids. The soles of our feet literally became leather! Even though he has been away from New Zealand for about 50 years, his brothers and sisters and he (his parents passed on several years ago) are still very closely connected to each other. Throughout the decades they have telephoned each other about every ten days and they keep up to date with what they are each doing. Shortly after learning of his being a recipient of the Nobel Prize he was speaking to one of his brothers in New Zealand by phone and he said how lucky he was to have been raised in a poor family which was also a close loving family. The fact that we were poor made them self reliant and conscious of the value of money. The fact that they were closely knit taught them the important aspects of interpersonal relationships. Everyone expects "the important things" in life that such as birthday and Christmas presents, but it is the "little unimportant" actions which actually are the real important things. These put the flesh on the skeleton of any relationship. Several hundred of these each week - the unimportant, the unexpected, the unnecessary, "the little things", are the things that really count. He says that they were lucky to have been brought up in this environment, but there is a statement on the wall of my study at home in suburban Philadelphia which reads, "I am a very lucky person and the harder I work the luckier I seem to be"! It is his home life while growing up through high school, which he consider to have been the single most important factor in any success which he may have had in life. As his parents always said, "...an 'A's grade in a class is not a sign of success." Success is knowing that you have done your best and have exploited your God-given or gene-given abilities to the next maximum extent. More than this, no one can do.