Roy Tucker

Tractors and Chopsticks: My Work with the Unrra Project in China, 1946 to 1947 Roy Tucker

Roy S. Tucker left Oklahoma State University in 1941 to enlist in the Army, where he served as Platoon Commander with the 57th Signal Battalion. Roy's unit took part in the invasions at Anzio, Salerno, and Southern France during World War II. Soon after the war ended, Roy went to Washington, DC, to look for a job. He was hired by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to work as a Tractor Driver Instructor in China. Roy and his wife E. J. were married on December 8, 1945. Roy traveled to China in April 1946, with E. J. following about eight months later after her departure was delayed by a longshoremen's strike in San Francisco. The letters E. J. wrote to her mother from China are included in a section of Tractors and Chopsticks. Other sections include correspondence related to the UNRRA Project and numerous photographs taken by Roy. Margo Tucker, daughter of Roy and E. J., was instrumental in getting Roy's book published. Margo graduated from Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska, in 1983 with a major in social psychology. Margo is a Montessori Certified directress, and she has traveled extensively in Western Australia and Europe.