Bill Moisescu, Romanian immigrant engineer

This week I was fortunate to have a Romanian-speaking friend accompany me to the Immigration History Research Center ("IHRC") at the University of Minnesota. We looked at several primarily Romanian-language collections. For my personal research, I wanted to find the copy of "America" newspaper that mentioned my great-uncle's graduation from the U of M in 1929. I had the date of publication, so it was easy. Here is the story we found, including a photo of Great Uncle Bela (who used the names "Bill" or "William" in the U.S.) Moisescu:

The date of the newspaper is 2 July 1929. "America" was a national newspaper published in the Romanian language in Cleveland, Ohio and widely read by Romanian immigrants in the early 1900s. I am sure that his parents were extremely proud of his achievement. Loosely translated, it says, "A New Roumanian Engineer.  Mr. William Moisescu graduated on June 17 with a diploma in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is originally from Sannicolaul Mare, county of Torontal, and immigrated with his parents in 1911, living in St. Paul and now in South St. Paul, Minnesota." I don't speak Romanian and I neglected to have it translated properly (I will do so), but I believe it says that he was offered a job at Bucyrus Erie Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and that he was the first Romanian in Minnesota to graduate from that university. By December 1929, however, Bill was working as chief architect at the Swift & Co. meat packing plant in South St. Paul, where he lived until he moved to California in 1970. He never had any children.

In 1984, Bill wrote, "All I can hazily remember going to school at the U for 5 days to 6 days a week, hiking down the hill from 9th Avenue, taking street car to St. Paul, transferring, taking another one to Minneapolis. Riding the darn things for 1-1/2 to 2 hours each way. Carried a lunch, had a bowl of baked beans and a slice of buttered bread for 15c at White Castle for supper. I didn't buy any books, studied at Engineering Library came home on darn street car at night."

Bill and his younger sister, Valeria, my "Grandma Val," both graduated from South St. Paul High School in the Class of 1925 when she was only 16. In later years she told me how she resented her brother for being able to attend university. It must have been a huge financial investment by the family (their father Ilie or "Eli" was a barber, and mother Gizella didn't work outside the home), and Valeria certainly had to contribute her earnings to her brother's schooling. "I was just a girl," she said angrily, "Going to work was good enough for me." But more about her later...