Papers of Theodore Dykstra, 1942-1944

Theodore Dykstra was born in Oldeboorn, The Netherlands, on 23 December 1896. In 1914 he immigrated to Oregon to join his older brother, who had immigrated in 1912. He enrolled in high school courses taught at the local YMCA, where he learned English and obtained his high school diploma. He supported himself by working as a short order cook during the school year and by working in the wheat fields of western Oregon during the summers. He obtained his B.A. degree from Oregon State College at Corvallis in 1923, and his M.A. (1926) and PhD (1938) from the University of Wisconsin. In 1926, Dykstra was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a plant pathologist in Corvallis, Oregon. In 1935, he served as the U.S. delegate to the 6th International Botanical Congress, held in Amsterdam. Upon his return from Europe he transferred to the Main Experimental Station of the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Maryland.

In September 1942, Dr. Dykstra, then an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases, was detailed by the U.S. Secretary of State to “assist the Chinese Government in the breeding of better corn and potato varieties as a contribution to the Chinese war effort” (letter to Dykstra from the Asst. Secretary of State, September 14, 1946). “You were selected for this undertaking because you have served for sixteen years as a plant breeder for the United States Government, because you have received the degree of Ph.D in Plant Science and because you now hold the rank of Principal Pathologist in the Department of Agriculture.” (ibid.) Dykstra was dispatched to Chungking, China’s wartime capital.

Dr. Dykstra was instructed by the Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, L. A. Wheeler, to take with him to China photographic equipment which “…will be indispensible in recording the field conditions and the visual results of your plant breeding for demonstration to Chinese officials and for the preparation of a report to the United States Government on your work, in order that this Government may be of greater service to China.

“The seeds which you are carrying are representative of the best strains of potatoes and corn in the United States and will be used in China for cross-breeding purposes.” (Wheeler to Dykstra, Sept. 14, 1942). After the completion of his one-year appointment, Dykstra was reappointed for an additional year, finally leaving China in mid-1944.

Upon his return from his mission in China, Dr. Dykstra went to The Netherlands with the [U.S.] Foreign Economic Administration (previously named Office of Economic Warfare), where he was responsible for the agricultural rehabilitation of Holland following the end of the Second World War. In 1946, he transferred to the Agricultural Extension Service at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, where he stayed until his retirement in 1966.