Susan Parkinson

• Parkinson did a Master's degree in nutrition at Cornell. She was interested in the nutritional needs of developing peoples. Her thesis was on the Navajos. She found that they were suffering a great deal as the transition took place from traditional to modern diets. Very high levels of TB and infant mortality.
• Trained with Gilchrist.
• Came to the Pacific with the South Pacific Health Services (SPHS). Just as Hoodless was the first man to train Native Medical Practitioners, so the SPHS was the first to train native nutritionists. They are very proud of that accomplishment.
• Visited Gardner Island in 1954. There was a forest of pumpkins on the island. "They would try raising anything, and the island seemed perfectly suited to pumpkins."
• Her son is William; his wife is Sufi.
  • William studied in Australia. He helped found Fiji's first commercial radio station in 1985 (FM 96). They've got four stations (?) in Fiji now and two in Papua New Guinea. Involved in Fiji television.

"There are no more heroes now. They've all gone."