May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! This 1930 Saranac Lake High School yearbook photo shows George Rockrise, approximately age 14. George was the only son of Thomas Rockrise and Agnes Margaret Asbury. George’s father Thomas, a.k.a Iwahiko Tsumanuma, was one of the earliest Japanese immigrants to receive an architecture degree in the United States. He was also one of the first Japanese architects to be licensed in New York, in 1916. Thomas was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1922, and the family moved to Saranac Lake while he took the cure. George attended school in Saranac Lake during this time. Unfortunately, Thomas died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake in 1936. (Photo provided — Historic Saranac Lake Collection)