Lower house honors McPhetres

By Marconi Calindas
Reporter

House of Representatives honored local chronicler Sam McPhetres through a House resolution adopted last Friday.

House Resolution 14-99 lauded the current Northern Marianas College teacher for his contributions and services as an instructor specializing in history and government in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

In 1990 to 2001, McPhetres wrote a civic textbook on self-government and citizenship in the CNMI. These writings are still being used at the Hopwood Junior High School. He collaborated and co-wrote a history textbook of Palau for the Ministry of Education of that country. He became a member of the board of directors of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce for several years and became president in 1996.

From 1973 to 1981, McPhetres was a program developer for the Education for Self-Government Program, a political education program designed to educate the citizens of the Trust Territory on self-determination. He also held several positions with the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1973 to 1990.

In the same period, McPhetres was the coordinator for International Organizations administering the relations between the Trust Territory government and United Nations in various regional organizations, which included writing annual reports to the Trusteeship Council. He attended annual sessions in New York and escorted visiting missions throughout the Trust Territory.

McPhetres also became the director of the Trust Territory Archives. He administered the closure and document preservation and distribution of the Trust Territory administration files. Over 2,000 rolls of microfilm were produced and distributed to the University of Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau and the CNMI.

He taught the mandatory Marianas history and political science at the NMC under a Humanities grant from 1997 up to this time. His past achievements also include Peace Corps administrator in the Ivory Coast, Somalia from 1966 to 1972.

Since 1973, McPhetres has contributed numerous articles to a diverse variety of academic journals and magazines on social, political and historical issues involving Micronesia and in the past few years, specializing in the CNMI.