Ethnic Life Stories Trail of Trees Episode 31 - Jorge Padron

Jorge Luis Padron was born in March 1931 in Cuba. He was the third and youngest son. He had a happy childhood in Havana with his older brothers, Adriano and Carlos, and younger sister Olga.

His favorite person when he was a child was his grandmother, Carmen, who doted on him and told him stories. His father owned a pharmacy, which inspired Padron to go into the science and medical fields when he got older.

Padron attended Candler College in Cuba and worked to improve his English, and after graduating second in his class, he was offered a full scholarship to study in the US. Arriving in Shawnee, Oklahoma to attend OBU was a culture shock. Despite this, Padron recalled his college years with fondness, and he made lots of friends.

While he was teaching at OBU after graduation, he met Dorothy Busha, whom he would later marry. They were married in 1957 and moved into a house on Walnut Street in Springfield together. The couple raised three children together: Anne, Charles and Phillip.

The family traveled all over on account of Padron’s Fulbright lectureships with Drury University, and he later became an administrator at the college, too. He retired from the school in 1996.

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Read all of Padron's story and the rest of the Ethnic Life Stories Project stories by clicking here.

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Music is Bach Cello Suite no. 3 by Colin Carr from the Free Music Archive.

Episodes are edited, recorded, mixed, and published by Diana Dudenhoeffer.