By Mrs. Vernon Doss
Staff Correspondent
Phone 2063
FORESTVILLE — Members of the Ross family of this area gathered at Mirabel Park for a weekend picnic in order to greet one of the older members of the family, Ed Ross, of San Diego. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have been visiting with his brother and wife, Mrs. and Mrs. H. E. Ross, on Van Keppel Rd., and the affair gave a large number of relatives an opportunity to see their uncle and brother.
Present were Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Voreis and son Ross of Lakeport, Mr. and Mrs. Ole Waage of Oakland and their daughter, Genevieve, and their 3 sons, Mrs. Ross De Gregory and daughters, Susie and Jacke, of Oakland, Mrs. Blanche Kimes and Calvin Kimes and his 3 sons, Gary Walter and Calvin Jr., all of Santa Rosa, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Owen and children, Rickey, Kathy and Craig, of Windsor, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Kimes of Skagg Springs, Mrs. O. Matteoli and daughter, Jeanne, of Cloverdale, Mrs. Cornelius Van Keppel, Mrs. Clara Van Keppel, Robert Van Keppel, Lonnie Hughes, Mrs. Jessie Riley, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Wiebe and son, Nickie, Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt D. Bockes and daughter, Karyn.
Mary B. Ward and the H. E. Rosses of Forestville, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Ross of San Diego, Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Ross and grandson of Richmond, Ernest Ross of Courtland, Mr. and Mrs. Mathew Smith and Carol and Charles of Forestville, Mr. and Mrs. William Smith and son of Sebastopol, Mrs. Sadie Walter, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Walter and daughter Linda, of Angwin, Mrs. Amanda Ross and Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Davis of Ross Station Rd., Mrs. F. P. Abshire of Geyserville, Irwin Dick Ross of Forestville, Mrs. Violet Looney of Sonoma and Mrs. Mamie Fish of Petaluma.
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Voreis of Scotts Valley were hosts at a cootie party honoring Arch Hendricks, on his birthday, at their home on Saturday night.
Cootie was played, after which refreshments were served, including a beautiful birthday cake made by Mrs. Hendricks. Red and blue crepe paper were used in decoration.
After the refreshments dancing was enjoyed by the following guests at the happy affair: Mr. and Mrs. Arch Hendricks, Mr. and Mrs. Olie (sic) Waage and children Genevive (sic), Norman and Edward, of Oakland; Mr. and Mrs. Anfin Haage (sic) and children, Janice and Avon; Mr. and Mrs. Gene Burger, Mr. and Mrs. Elvin Hystad, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Simpson, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Patten, Mike Guinn, Jack Hendricks, Shirley and Richard Voreis. Fern Green was ill and unable to attend.
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur R. Voreis of Scotts Valley last Wednesday celebrated a double occasion which mathematicians tell them occurs only once in every 133,225 marriages.
It was the anniversary of both their birthdays.
Attending a surprise party in their honor were Mr. and Mrs. Orville Weese; Mr. and Mrs. Ellis George; Mr. and Mrs. John Smith; Mr. and Mrs. Ole M. Waage Sr.; Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Kimball; Delores Kimball; Loretta Green of Richmond; Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Dutcher of Upper Lake; Mr. and Mrs. Jim Bates of Ukiah; Mrs. and Mrs. Ole K. Waage Jr.; Genevieve Waage, and Norman, Edward and Robert of Oakland.
Following a buffet supper, the guests enjoyed singing and dancing to music provided by Mrs. Dutcher, Miss Waage, Miss Kimball, and Miss Green.
Genevieve Waage will be installed as worthy advisor of Unity Assembly, Order of Rainbow for Girls, at 8 p.m., on Saturday at the Madison Street Temple, 1433 Madison St.
Miss Waage will be installed by Elizabeth Froines, past worthy adviser.
Mary Elizabeth Parsons, junior past worthy advisor, will install the other officers, who are:
Judy Butler, worthy associate advisor; Marilee Sparks, charity; Marilyn Dawson, hope; Beverly Robinson, faith; Judy Basker, recorder; Marilyne Lyon, chaplain; Phyllis Paulson, drill leader; Barbara Shepardson, love; Joyce Taylor, religion; Jane Ellen Jones, nature; Merebeth Rohr, immortality; Diana Strock, fidelity; Dolores Coleman, patriotism; Brenda Peterson (proxy), service; Pat Bradley, confidential observer; Mary Ann Parsons, outer observer.
Assisting in the ceremony will be Mrs. Ruth Corson, mother advisor of Unity Assmebly; Mr. and Mrs. Jack McCrudden, host and hostess; Jeanette Jacobsen, recorder; Pat Limpke, chaplain; Wilma Luders, installing marshal; Phyllis Paulson, Joan Finke and Jane Ellen Jones, marshals; Edward Waage, flag bearer; Marilyn Dahlstrom, Rainbow banner; Mary Anne McCabe, Bible bearer, and Norman Waage and Robert Waage, ushers.
Mrs. Gertrude Rost Ellis will be the installing musician. Pat Gellenbeck will be the soloist. Refreshments and dancing will follow.
A joint birthday party was enjoyed on September 6th at the home of Mrs. Mildred Hage with Janice Hage and Norman Waage as guests of honor. The latter was here visiting from Oakland.
The traditional birthday cakes for each honoree and other delicious refreshments were served.
The guest list included: Leah Jean Noreen, Tommy Curry, Darlene Henderson, Dennis Harmon, Sandra Hage, Saundra Sowell, Joanne Butler, Shirley Beach, Edward Waage, Genavieve (sic) Waage, Avon Hage, the two honored guests and Mrs. Carl Noreen, Mrs. Arch Hendricks, Ole Waage, Anfin Hage and the hostess.
Mr. and Mrs. Ole Waage, nee Iris Voreis, of Oakland are the proud parents of a baby boy born OCtober 27th. The little fellow weighed seven pound, fourteen ounces and was named Edward Vern. This is their third child and second boy.
Mrs. Arthur Voreis returned on Saturday following a two and a half week's visit in Oakland with her daughter and family.
Shirley Voreis is now employed by the Stanard (sic) Oil Co. at Richmond and brought his mother to Lakeport. Mrs. Anfin Hage and daughter, Janice, are spending this week with her sister, Mrs. Waage and family.
Sunday's annual Lakeport Easter egg hunt, sponsored by the Lakeport Rotary Club drew one of the largest crowds of children in the history of the event.
The children swarmed all over the area in the Terraces marked off for the hunt.
Top awards went to Edward Waage in the 9 to 12-year-old class, and to Nancy Douglas in the one to 5-year-old class, for finding gold eggs.
Bunnies were won by Douglas Creamer, John Finley, Toddy Cossey, Faye Kennedy, Deanne Lampson, Marilyn Baldwin and Herby Bush.
Chairman for the event was Bob Reese, assisted by Willard Lusk, Bev Brown and Roy Wells.
Making their home in Alameda are Mr. and Mrs. Norman R. Waage, whose early September wedding took place in the Fruitvale Congregational Church with the Rev. R. C. Waddell conducting the afternoon service.
The bride is the former JoAnn Patricia Saulovich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence M. Saulovich of Pearmain St.
Both young people are Castlemont High graduates, Norman subsequently attending California State Polytechnic College. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ole K. Waage, at whose Lowry Road home the wedding reception took place.
A floor length bouffant gown of silk organza, with an embroidered overskirt, was worn by the bride, with a tiara of lace and seed pearls holding her elbow length veil. Her bouquet was a cascade of stephanotis centered with a white orchid.
An aqua gown, bouffant and ballerina length, was worn by her maid of honor, Carol Smith, her cousin.
Best man was the bridegroom's brother, Edward Waage, and serving as ushers were Ross Voreiss (sic) of San Pablo and David Froines of Richmond.
For her daughter's wedding and reception Mrs. Saulovich donned a sheath dress of blue lace, while the mother of the bridegroom was in pink lace, also a sheath style.
Thirty-one Eastbay high school science and mathematics students are competing for scholarships in the annual Engineers Week progra, according to Dr. R. M. Fulrath, University of California engineering professor and scholarship committee chairman.
The scholarship nominees from 10 Bay Area zones will be interviews by the committee. The 10 winners will be honored at the Engineers' Week banquet at the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco Feb. 24.
First place winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Two runners-up will win $600 scholarships and each zone winner will receive a $100 U.S. Savings Bond.
Among the judges are Charls W. Leavitt of Berkeley; H. A. Betague, Lafayette; Nate H. Snyder, Berkeley; Wilson S. Prichett, Richmond; Nat Daniels, Fremont; and Roger Wiley, Concord.
Eastbay nominees are:
John R. Rasmussen, San Ramon High School; Richard Seibert, Alhambra high School, Martinez; Earle R. Sloan, Albany High School; Alan G. Carlton, Piedmont High School; Robert C. Mathiesen, Berkeley High School.
John R. Burke, Hayward High School; Sharon L. Murdoch, James Logan High School, Union City; Franklin C. Lester, Washinton High School, Fremont; Jeffrey H. Rowe, Tennyson High School, Hayward; Donald L. McNerny, Castro Valley High School; Michael Paciotti, San Leandro High School.
From:
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Berkeley 4, California
ENGINEERING AND SCIENCES EXTENSION
2451 BANCROFT WAY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
BERKELEY 4, CALIFORNIA
To:
Mr. Edward V. Waage
4700 Lowry Road
Oakland 5, Calif.
Awards this certificate to
EDWARD VERN WAAGE
FOR SERVICE TO SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
WITH THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION INSTITUTE
SUMMER 1960
BERKELEY CAMPUS - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
(signed) Paul H. Sheats
Dean, University Extension
Sons of the American Revolution Good Citizenship medals are being presented outstanding Oakland seniors at commencement and assembly exercises this month.
The medals are given for dependability, cooperation, leadership, patriotism and potential service to society. Dr. Max A. X. Clark, chaplain of the Oakland Chapter of the S.A.R., heads the awards committee.
Student recipients include Judith Calvanico of 3562 Kempton Ave., a graduate of Oakland Tabernacle High School; Andrew M. Shields of 64 Heumosa Ave., Technical High School; Edward Waage of 4700 Lowry Road, Castlemont High; William J. Hubartt of 2900 Modesto Ave., Fremont High; and David W. Dunlap of 3377 Rubin Drive, Oakland High.
With great insight and candor, the president of the Biscuit and Cracker Manufacturers' Assn. comments on the industry's present and future and goals for the trade association he serves. Here is the story of a dedicated man and his California-based company, Mother's Cake and Cookie Co.
There's no sense of the frenetic about Ole Waage. His pace is firm but flexible, tidy without tensions. Maybe his sturdy Norweigan (sic) heritage has been the dominating influence on his life-style and philosphy. In any case, Waage's blue eyes take on more sparkle and depth as he unhesitatingly comments on the industry he's known for 37 years.
A modest man, Waage shuns accolades and the VIP treatment because he is his own person. He knows where he is going whether it's directing operations as executive vice president of Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., Oakland, California, or serving a second term as president of the Biscuit & Cracker Manufacturer's Assn.
A native Californian, Waage grew up in Oakland and has lived there or nearby for 62 years. From his sprawling ranch house high in the San Leandro hills, he looks down on his bigger than an acre property and up to the fairways of the Chabot Country Club. Beyond are the 11 Western states; Mother's ever expanding cookie market. This, of course, includes Hawaii, Ole and his wife Iris' favorite vacationland. When they travel the couple prefers people to places because "Only when you get to know people can you learn to understand and love another land."
Waage's pet hobby is photographing people. Favorite sports mutually shared with Iris, such as badminton, golf, and paddle tennis, are more fun with people. And they delight in sharing their home. Only a short ride from his office, Waage lunches daily with Iris, his wife of 33 years. Waage's business associates and visitors eagerly respond to the warm invitation.
Mrs. Waage, a tall, stately, gracious hostess moves with the grace of a dancer, another pastime the Waages never tire of. She wears a floor length muumuu, a souvenir from Hawaii, and matter-of-factly admits she made the bread, pickled the cucumbers after growing them and canned the fruits in the colorful salad. Both the Waages have green thumbs so it is not surprising that the conversation touches on the thriving asparagus plot, spraying of fruit trees and the deer who brazenly consume the roses.
Pictures of their daughter, three sons and five grandchildren are everywhere.
Norman, the eldest son and father of three, is night superintendent at Mother's; Edward, with a doctorate in chemistry, teaches at Illinois State University; and Robert, 23, now in the Army earned a psychology degree. Genevieve, the oldest, is married and mother of two boys.
Double Sales Volume
It is soon apparent that, after people, Waage believes in the product and prosperity. He is a very optimistic man. While others may wring their hands and lament the sad state of the economy, Ole Waage confidently comments on Mother's Cake and Cookie Co.'s plans to more than double its gross sales volume in the next ten years. Probably sooner.
Waage told Snack Food: "In the past 15 years we've been growing at a rate of 10 percent per year, or doubling our sales every seven years. Our present sales are $20 million a year and we are enjoying a profitable return on our investment.
"However, the financial demands on food companies in the 1970s will escalate. More technical and professional people, more funds for research and development, increased distribution costs, greater outlays for automation—these costs, compounded by inflation, will raise the cost of doing business for all companies.
To Be Competitive
"By 1980 I feel that a full-line company such as Mother's will have to do $40 to 45 million in sales in order to be competitive, provide for future growth and still earn a reasonable profit. This means we will have to double our sales by 1980. I won't be here to see it because I will have retired, but it will be done. I know it will."
As executive vice president of Mother's since 1955, Ole Waage is in a predominately important position to know. To know even more about the industry, Waage has, for many years, been actively involved with the Biscuit & Crackers Manufacturers' Assn. Currently he is serving a second term as president which will expire May 1971. Before that he did a stint on the board of directors in 195; served on the executive committee in 1965; held the vice-presidency two years later; and, assumed his present position in 1969.
Waage handles both jobs with efficiency, enthusiasm and his own inimitable brand of soft-sell dynamics. He confesses he thought he knew as much as there was to know about the business 15 years ago. Now, on reflection, he feels he knows very little because there is so much to know. Still, the record disproves his observation.
At Mother's the sales volume graph took a decided upswing in the 50's when Floyd Wheatley, son of the founder Mique Wheatley, was general manager and Waage controller. But not before the firm recovered from shattering setbacks born of the changing times. With the influx of cake mixes, Mother's deleted their cake line, and a union contract cut the salesmen's work week from six to five days. The combination of factors dropped sales 30 to 40 percent. It was rebuild or sink.
In 1955, Wheatley moved up to the presidency and Waage as executive vice-president. "To get going again" the firm expanded its market area to Los Angeles, the second largest in the country; changed its package design; changed to larger packaging; put more emphasis on developing new items; installed a laboratory with sophisticated equipment and brought in highly competent food technologists as watch guards on supplies to assure uniformity of the product's size, texture, taste and shelf life; scrapped traditional outdoor and radio advertising and went for the slogan "Look for the cookies in the passionate purple package."
Homemade cookies
"All contributed to our growth and we've been growing ever since," Waage says. A boast to be proud of for a firm that started as a one man operation in 1914. That was when Mique (pronounced Mike) Wheatley, operator of a San Francisco newsstand noticed the daily trips of an elderly couple selling homemade cookies door to door out of a hand basket.
Wheatley saw possibilities in developing the idea and persuaded the couple to sell their recipe. The earnings from his newsstand finally added up to a down payment on a tiny bakery, a buggy and a horse named Vanilla. His initial output was 2000 cookies packed 150 to a box and prices at $1.00 each. He was assisted by his wife, Mrs. Leopoldine Wheatley, who is still active in the business as chaiman of the board of Mother's Cake & Cookie Co.
Today's plant and offices at 810 81st Street, Oakland, occupes a block long building. Current weekly production averages 700,000 to 800,000 pounds. (In 1934 when Waage joined the firm as production scheduler, the firm was about a 10th of its present size.)
Now, some 30 to 35 items make up the product line. Chocolate chip cookies are the top seller with oatmeal a close second. A peanut creme, introduced November, 1970, is the latest addition and "is going very well." Packaged in a box with a handsome color photo in brown upon brown tones, the item takes on a gift look.
Moving up the ladder, Waage went on to paymaster, personnel manager and controller before assuming his present position.
More Competitors
Waage recalls that there was more competition in terms of number of cookie companies 15 years ago. Today, the smaller companies are being absorbed or going out of business. Now there are fewer companies but the remaining ones are bigger and the competition even tougher. "But this doesn't dismay us," says Waage. "The answer is to staff your organization with competent, knowledgeable, creative people—people who like to take on a job and run with it."
For Profit, Creative People
This highly attuned sensitivity toward people makes Waage "a greate believer in delegating authority. When a job falls to a man competent to handle it, he should do it. I don't want to get into it." In fact, Waage asserts, that the most important asset to insure success is creative personnel. "We like to see our men and women develop their talents more fully. Too often we spend time, money and effort to make our people feel secure when we should be allowing them to feel they are accomplishing something worthwhile, that they are 'growing' through their work.
"One of our ways we are helping our people grow is to use the Task Force system. We select people from first and second levels of management and assign them top management problems. In one case we selected on person each from purchasing, manufacturing, marketing and accounting and gave them the opportunity to create a new product line. They worked on feasibility studies, product development, product testing, package design, cost estimates, pricing, sales and profit projections, test marketing and promotional activities. We wanted to challenge their minds with top level problems and they responded by challenging our minds with their solutions.
"Incidently, a group working on a major marketing project such as this does not report to the vice president of marketing. Instead we have it report to a non-marketing executive such as vice president of purchasing, or the controller, because we want to expand their horizons, to challenge them with problems that lie beyond the boundaries of their specialty."
An inveterate long-range planner, Waage deals in decades. At Mother's, Wheatley, Waage and top executives are working on their 10 year plan to double sales. This may be done either by geographic expansion or an expanded product line. However, Waage sees the company doing both. Jumping in six years from the seven Western states to 14, the market area now stretches from San Diego, California to Anchorage, Alaska, and from Denver to El Paso to Hawaii. Sale Lake, the newest market, was opened six months ago. Total sales place Mother's in the number one position in northern California, number two in southern California and number two in the Northwest, an area opened in 1968.
Setting B&CMA Goals
As B&CMA's president, Waage's long-range planning strategy has stimulated innovative ideas. Rather than be a "caretaker" Waage sought to accomplish a set of goals during his term. "With the tremendous support of the board of directors and fellow officers, Samuel H. Campbell III, George Keller and Glenn Rhodes, first, second and third vice presidents respectively; Frank Delaney, treasurer and William Pieper, secretary, we are making great strides."
A planning committee was set-up with Glenn Rhodes of Lance, Ind., as chairman. The major recommendation was to appoint an executive vice president to be the chief operating officer of the association.
Says Waage: "The board of directors, in adopting the committee's recommendation, recognized that our association, like so many other associations, is on the threshold of a new era. Times are changing rapidly and new approaches are needed for old problems as well as for the multiplicity of the tasks we see ahead. This means expanded operations in involvement in more areas.
"It means more activity in our technical services program, which is Bill Pieper's primary interest. We want him to be able to devote more of his time to that aspect of our operations in servicing our members. This requires a full-time salaried chief operating officer for the organization who can administer and carry out these programs as they develop in the future.
"To sum up, we're trying to develop a more effective, well-rounded trade association truly representative of our industry—an association to which our members can point with pride. This is what our members are supporting and what the board wants to provide."
A nutrition committee, chaired by Dr. Irving Rusoff of National Biscuit Co., is concerned with the enrichment of the industry's products. As a start, a separate research committee was set-up in February to study, among other things, how, why and when the consumer buys the industry's product and how she feels about having nutrients added to fortify and enrich them. These research findings will go back to the nutrition committee.
"I think we will have a continuing need for the services of a technical committee such as the nutrition committee. Mounting government regulations, plus the rising expectations of the consumer, will make it necessary that we do more work, more research in the technical aspects of our business. There is so much yet to be learned about ingredients, about baking processes. Either as individual companies or an industrywide basis, research will have to be done.
"A standing technical committee could be most helpful in suggesting areas of research that coule be undertaken by the association, either acting alone or in conjunction with suppliers."
Still more committees at work include Industry Statistics with Robert G. Weil, Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., as chairman. For the first time statistics on the total production of cookies and crackers are being compiled on a quarterly basis. The Government Specifications committee, with E. W. "Bill" Reynolds of Schulze and Burch Biscuit Co. as chairman, has updated government specs on bid items. Since the last figures new ingredients and new packaging processes have come along and these ideas and savings were passed on to the government.
A convention sites committee, headed by Waage, has reserved sites for the next five years. Already many desirable places are reserved until 1980, Waage says, so it behooved the association to plan ahead.
Consumer: Top Priority
Waage told Snack Food the top priority matter facing the biscuit industry today is "people who buy our product. I think it has to be that. Anything other than that... then you are ignoring your primary business purpose. Both as an industry and through our individual companies, we have to do a continuing job of identifying the wants and needs of the constantly changing consumer. The research project of the nutrition committee should tell us much about the homemaker—how she perceives our industry's products in terms of nutrition, as a food, as a source of enjoyment in eating.
&qout;But ours is a 'tomorrow industry.' We need to keep abreast of changes in buying habits. We need to concern ourselves with what people are going to expect from their food suppliers next year and the year after that.
"A forward looking step was taken by the B&CMA board of directors when it recommended to the members that they voluntarily use enriched wheat flour. This is a positive and valuable contribution to the consumer.
"The directors' recommendation was well received by the manufacturers and the response from government officials and nutritionists has been most congratulatory. Letters of approval came in from the Department of Health, Education & Welfare and Harvard University School of Public Health. Administrator Edward J. Hekman, Department of Agriculture wrote: 'Please extend my congratulations to your members, and convey my appreciation to them for this important recommendation. Biscuits and crackers are used so widely in our diets, that an improvement in their nutritive value translates quickly into significant improvement in the diets of the American people'."
On Packages, Labeling
"Another example of our association responding to consumer needs involved package proliferation. During John Barton's term of office as president, the B&CMA worked with the Department of Commerce in reducing the number of package sizes. This voluntary program was most successful.
"Nutritional labeling requiring the listing of percentages of nutrients and the contribution to minimum daily requirements or to recommended daily allowances may well be required in the next year or so. I have two reservations regarding such regulations. First, the cost of developing the information through frequent assays of the product line may outweigh the benefits to the consumer. Second, I wonder whether the average homemaker has enough technical knowledge about vitamins to make effective use of the information. There will be many who will want to educate her but the food industry should be the one to do it.
"I hope that under our new headquarters setup we will be in a position to communicate with homemakers, nutritionists, home economists and educators through the use of news releases and printed material. We need to inform them about the role cookies, crackers and baked snacks play in satisfying family food needs. We need to increase their knowledge of our industry's products in terms of nutrition, labeling, menu planning and storage. Such an activity would have an added plus for our industry by stimulating sales of our products."
On Private Label
As for private labels for cookies, crackers and baked snacks, Waage told Snack Food he believes we will see many more of them on supermarket shelves.
For two reasons, said Waage: first, the retail chains are getting larger so they are able to put in their own bakeries. Second, the move to discounting has put an even greater cost pressure on the retailer. For many of them the private label looks inviting, because there is no direct price comparison with other competing retailers, which gives them the opportunity to take a larger market if they so desire.
"As time goes on, we can expect to see many of the larger chains carrying only three full-line cookie brands—their private label plus two advertised brands. For many of the smaller manufacturers this will mean a shift to specialized areas of the market—specialty product lines, private labels and institutional sales.
"This growth of private labels coupled with rising costs of distribution undoubtedly will cause more and more manufacturers to re-examine the cost-effectiveness relationship of their distribution system.
On Driver-Salesmen
"At Mother's we are using driver salesmen and we expect to continue with them. This type of distribution system offers special advantages for us. It minimizes product breakage, facilitates special promotion activities, and makes for effective shelf merchandising. In particular it enables us to do considerable in-store promotion work, which we consider to be one of the big factors in our sales growth.
"Lee Bickmore, chairman of the board of NAtional Biscuit Co., once said: 'To be successful in the consumer food field, a company has to have a strong product and a strong marketing department.'
"We fully agree with him because this is the premise upon which we have operated. But to make this premise work you have to have a top flight management team and we have it in Robert H. Brandon, vice president-manufacturing; Albert E. Davis, vice president-purchasing; George F. Kinst, vice president-marketing; Robert G. Weil, controller; Nancy Dolton, manager-product development; and Robert W. Frey, personnel manager."
Product Convenience
As for the future of the biscuit industry, Waage's confirmed optimism surfaces again.
"I don't see anything but continued growth for our industry because our products are particularly right for the family food needs of the 70's.
"The products consumers will be seeking in the 70s will be those that best satisfy a life-style that will be influenced by a higher population density, fewer meals eaten together by the family, impromptu eat-and-run meals, more discretionary income, and more leisure time and increased recreational activities away from home. All this translates to a need for food products that are delivious, nutritious, portable and ready-to-eat—all the characteristics of the products we make. Certainly we will have increased competition from the rest of the food industry, but I'm sure that an industry as innovative and aggressive as ours will continue to meet the evolving needs of the consumer."
Reflecting on the "honor of being president of the B&CMA," Waage affirms that it has been a stimulating and rewarding job. "One that took more time that I expected. To do the job I wanted to do I needed more time away from Mother's. My staff took over part of my responsibilities and has done an excellent job with them.
"At Mother's I have been fortunate in that our president, Floyd Wheatly has given me free rein to carry out my ideas. He doesn't second-guess me. He's a warm and congenial person and all of us have a high regard for him. All along I have been assisted by top-flight people.
"It's been the same with the B&CMA. Our members take an active part in the organization, attend meetings, serve on committees, and provide technical assistance for special projects. We have a very competent headquarters staff in Chicago, and our general counsel, Joseph Creed, has been most helpful to me."
But then Waage knew what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go and how to get there. Like working up to forty daily laps in his swimming pool, you build to the top systematically, effectively when there's drive, determination and devotion. With characteristic understatement, Iris Waage puts it another way. "It's been a busy time."
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.
At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its Director General. In the nuclear non-proliferation regime, it is the IAEA which controls that nuclear energy is not misused for military purposes, and the Director General has stood out as a bold advocate of new measures to strengthen that regime. At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, this work is of incalculable importance.
The vision underlying the IAEA stems from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In December 1953, he gave his famous "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations. The vision was surprisingly concrete: the nuclear powers should "make joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials to an International Atomic Energy Agency". The most important task for the IAEA would be "to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind". The IAEA was in other words to receive potentially military nuclear material from the nuclear powers, and then distribute it for peaceful use to the countries that were most in need of it. The IAEA was formally established on 29 July 1957, for the purpose of preventing military use and stimulating peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Implicitly in the IAEA statutes, but all the more explicitly in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, which was to mean so much to the IAEA, the five original nuclear powers are under an obligation "to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goals of eliminating those weapons". This important point has been repeated on a number of subsequent occasions. Despite several arms limitation agreements, the traditional nuclear powers can by no means be said to have come much closer to this goal. Although the number of nuclear weapons deployed has been reduced, tens of thousands of them remain – about as many as when the NPT entered into force – as well as a continuing interest in the development of new weapon types. This is one main reason why further non-proliferation efforts have stalled. The nuclear powers must take their obligations under the NPT seriously. It is hypocritical to go on developing one's own nuclear weapons while doing everything in one's power to prevent others from acquiring such weapons. As ElBaradei himself has put it, it is like "some who have … continued to dangle a cigarette from their mouth and tell everybody else not to smoke".
The number of nuclear powers in the world has risen. In addition to the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France and China, Israel, India and Pakistan have nuclear arms. Perhaps North Korea, too. This is not to say that there have been no positive developments. South Africa discontinued its program, thus becoming the first country to have developed nuclear weapons only to abandon them. All credit to South Africa! Belorussia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan renounced the nuclear weapons which the Soviet Union had left behind in their territories. Libya has reversed its policy. Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea and Turkey have given up ambitious programs. Nevertheless, proliferation continues. It has to be stopped.
The IAEA has met with both successes and reverses in its struggle to prevent the spread of nuclear arms. Iraq illustrates both. Initially, the IAEA failed to uncover the extensive program which Saddam Hussein had developed in the 1980s. That necessitated new routines. On the other hand, in cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the IAEA then managed in the 1990s to destroy such weapons of mass destruction as did exist. In the period prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the IAEA and UNMOVIC were under heavy pressure, despite which the inspectors carried out their task in Iraq in an independent, thorough and correct manner. As the world could see after the war in Iraq, the weapons that were not found proved not to have existed.
In North Korea, the IAEA discovered that the North Koreans had lied about their nuclear program. Since then, however, it has not been given any opportunity to carry out the inspections in North Korea which are certainly necessary. With respect to Iran, too, the IAEA has had both ups and downs. Iran managed to keep its nuclear program concealed for 18 years. For the past two years, however, the IAEA has undertaken important work there with some degree of success. The tense situation in the country can only be resolved provided the IAEA is allowed to carry out the necessary inspections and its steps and resolutions are respected.
Keeping pace with the many challenges with which it has been confronted in the last few years, the IAEA has managed to tighten up the control it exercises, also by carrying out special inspections at short notice. It has done a good job in a number of difficult contexts. At a time when international organizations have been heavily criticised, the IAEA has not only maintained but even in many respects strengthened its position. Its security control enables the organization to exercise functions that were previously the preserve of national authorities. In so far as it has encroached on national sovereignty, this control has broken new ground. Complete sovereignty in the nuclear field means complete insecurity for the rest of the world.
The central figure in this strengthening of the IAEA has been Director General ElBaradei. He has himself put forward numerous proposals aimed at this objective. He is an active participant in debates on the future of the non-proliferation regime. While building on the important work of his predecessors, and of Hans Blix in particular, he has managed to strengthen still further the positions both of the Director General and of the IAEA. His recent re-election for a third term will open up new opportunities in the years ahead both for him and for the IAEA. Today's award is thus very much a tribute to Mohamet ElBaradei in person, but is also intended to recognise the 2,300 staff from 90 countries who currently work for the IAEA, as well as the many who worked there before. Many are here today. We salute you and thank you for your work.
For the IAEA it has been and still is very important to help the poor countries of the world to participate in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Refraining from military uses should make it possible to help such countries with civilian uses. Such peaceful use has been controversial in many countries, however, and there has consequently been no increase in recent years. Nuclear energy currently accounts for about 16 per cent of global electricity production, but nearly all of this is in highly developed countries. Growth today is taking place principally in Russia, China, India and Brazil. The main reasons for the growth are energy shortages, high oil prices, the need to reduce CO2 emissions, and enhanced operational safety.
Although opinions differ on the civilian use of nuclear energy, we should all be able to agree on the importance of ensuring that the use that does take place is made as safe as possible. If we do see further growth in this sector, control arrangements will become all the more essential. This forms a major part of the work of the IAEA. Incidentally, many of us may not pause to reflect on the prominent position of nuclear energy in the health services, especially in the treatment of cancer, as well as in connection with agriculture, the environment, and industry.
The award to the IAEA and to ElBaradei is firmly founded in the history of the Peace Prize, and in Alfred Nobel's will, in which he mentions the "abolition or reduction of standing armies" as one of the three criteria for the award. Nobel would surely have agreed that in our day the struggle against nuclear arms must be even more urgent than opposition to "standing armies".
This year's prize to the IAEA and ElBaradei links together the two principal major lines of thought that have governed selections for the award throughout its history. Again and again, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has stressed the need for a better organized world. This explains the many prizes to representatives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union before World War I, to representatives of the League of Nations in the inter-war years, and to individuals and organizations attached to the United Nations after World War II. In 2001, year of the centenary of the Nobel Prizes, it was therefore only natural to give the award to the United Nations and to its Secretary General Kofi Annan. This year it is 60 years since the foundation of the United Nations. The IAEA is very much a part of the UN system and consequently belongs under this most distinct of all headings in the history of the Peace Prize.
A second and almost equally prominent theme has been work for disarmament and arms control. Many Laureates have advocated disarmament and peace in general. Even in the nuclear field a number of prizes have been awarded: to Linus Pauling in 1962 for his work for a nuclear test ban agreement; to Andrei Sakharov in 1975 for campaigning for nuclear disarmament and democracy; to Alva Myrdal and Garcia Robles in 1982 for seeking non-proliferation; to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1985, working across the east-west divide; and to the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat in 1995 for the important work they did for nuclear disarmament, especially at the expert level.
It has been claimed that every tenth year the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the prize to someone seeking the abolition of nuclear weapons. With the awards of 1975, 1985 and 1995 in mind, it is difficult for the Committee to deny the charge. But such awards have, as you have heard, been made more frequently than once a decade. And it was not the case in 2005 that the Committee had zeroed in on this field in advance. It would be truer to say that when the Committee, after a long discussion of this year's 199 candidates, finally selected the IAEA and ElBaradei, we came to the realisation that once again the prize was going to someone who favours reducing the importance of nuclear arms in international politics.
The atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago. Since then, the world has been united in the wish that nothing like that must ever happen again. Such weapons are so dreadful that they are meaningless in war. Naturally enough, memories of the atom bombs have been strongest of all in Japan, where people who survived the two atom bombs can still be found. The survivors have a special name, Hibakusha, and their own organization, Nihon Hidankyo. We salute them today. It is accordingly highly appropriate, even though it is a coincidence, that it is the Japanese ambassador to the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, who is at present the chairman of the organization's Board of Governors, and who will therefore receive the one half of the award on behalf of the IAEA.
Let us recall the story of the little girl, Sadako Sasaki, who as an infant was exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima bomb. Suffering as a twelve-year-old from deadly leukaemia, she heard the Japanese legend which tells us that if you fold one thousand cranes you can wish for anything you like. And Sadako began folding a thousand cranes, wishing to get well. According to popular legend, she died when she had folded 644 birds; her classmates folded the remaining 356. Sadako was buried with a wreath of 1,000 cranes. Her classmates and friends had a granite statue of her erected in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. The statue shows Sadako as a young girl with her arms out, and with a crane in her hand. Thousands of folded cranes are left by the statue every year.
Most of us dream of a future without nuclear weapons. We would finally be rid of the threat to mankind's very existence which the weapons represent. Those who do not dream of such a future tend to say that nuclear arms can not be uninvented, and maintain that if and when a war does break out, there will be pressure to develop nuclear arms again. The answer to this was given by Joseph Rotblat, the 1995 Laureate, for whom a memorial ceremony was held in London yesterday: Our long-term vision must be to put an end to war as such. We must banish war in the same way as the world has largely succeeded in banishing slavery, the commonest of social institutions.
Several Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to the many who oppose nuclear weapons. The successes have nevertheless been few and the setbacks many. Even the IAEA has had disappointments. But we can not give up. The basic challenge still confronts us. In the words of the Russell-Einstein manifesto of 1955: "Here then is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful, and inescapable: shall we put an end to the human race or shall we renounce war". That is the question. Shall we put an end to the human race or shall we renounce war?
Here is how the Norwegian author Nordahl Grieg put it in his poem "To Youth":
War is contempt for life. Peace is creative. At it with all your might: See death defeated!We congratulate you, Mohamed ElBaradei, and we congratulate the IAEA, on being awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. We thank you for what you have done, and hope for further advances in work that is so vital to us all.
WAAGE, Joann P., who lived in San Lorenzo for 45 years, died at her home on Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at age 66. A native of Oakland, Mrs. Waage was a longtime employee of the San Lorenzo School District who loved working at Royal Sunset Pre-School. She enjoyed taking care of her roses and being around her grandchildren. She is survived by her husband of 47 years, Norman Waage of San Lorenzo; children and their spouses, Robinanne and Richard Schulze, Michele and David Bridges, and Randy Waage; her brother, Don Saulovich; her brothers-in-law, Edward Waage and Robert Waage; grandchildren, Genevieve, Christopher, Xavier, Robin and DeAngelo. Family and friends are invited to attend services at 1 p.m. today, Feb. 22, at Holy Angels Funeral & Cremation Center, 1051 Harder Road, Hayward. Interment following at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.