Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–100 you pay ’em.” He said, “What do you know about marketing?” I said, “I have a feeling I may know as much as you do.” [Laughter] Which is a great place to start. He had a strong personality. He was perfectly willing to deal with controversy. His name was Andre Salaber. He was a Basque. He used to say, “You must think you’re tough.” I said, “Yeah, you Basques think you’re tough, too.” We had agreed that night that he would pay them. Well, I got there in June, and sometime during the winter—the snow was falling—Mario, one of the vice presidents, roughly at my level, shows up and says, “We’ve changed our mind. You’re going to pay them.” I said, “Oh, so they’re going to report to me.” “Well, no.” And I said, “Oh, no?” I said, “I had a deal.” “Well, we’ve changed the deal.” I said, “Yeah, you’ve changed the deal.” I stick my head out of the office, and I say to my secretary, “Bari, I want you to get John Roddy up here.” He was sort of my building person. He comes up. I say, “John. You know Mario. He’s got this group here that does market research. You know where they are. They’re all together, which should make this easy. I want you to take all their stuff, put it in cardboard boxes and I want them out just off the edge of the property. And I want it done quickly.” Mario, the vice president, says, “It’s snowing.” I say, “What does that have to do with it?” He says, “You wouldn’t do it.” I said, “John, would I do it?” He says, “Yeah, boss, you’ll do it.” I said, “OK, when I give you the word, it’s going to occur very quickly. I want all those people and all their stuff out there, off the edge of the property, by the side of the road. And Mario will tell you who’s going to come pick them up.” Mario says, “You’ll do it.” I said, “You better believe it.” He makes a phone call back to Andre and says, “I think we don’t have a deal.” [Laughter] So then I’m at some retreat they’re having for those of us who were sort of high middle– level VPs, and someone—the general counsel, I think—came up to me and said, “You know, you’ve only worked for this company for six months. Why is it you play the game just the way we do?” I said, “You want to play this game? I can play this game. You want to play tough guy—‘I can make you do what I want,’ and all that? I can play that game with you. But you know, at the end of the day, it doesn’t make any of us a penny.” I said, “Why don’t we just forget about doing this kind of stuff and worry about making money?” And he looks at me as if I’ve come from Mars, because everybody knows business is not about making money. For the people doing it, it’s about power. It’s entirely about power. It has nothing to do with making money, most of the time. I just had the wrong notion of why people in business do things, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–101 particularly in companies like that. No, it wasn’t about money; it was about showing who was boss. Well, I won that particular battle. I didn’t win all the battles. I won that one. ASPATURIAN: You weren’t bluffing. TOMBRELLO: Oh, no. Oh, no. You don’t dare bluff playing with people like that unless you’re just willing to leave. You have to be credible, and they respected that. It didn’t mean that things like that didn’t continue to occur. It meant that they knew it was just too much trouble to deal with some loony who was going to put this department—you know there were probably ten people in it—out by the side of the road. ASPATURIAN: In the snow. TOMBRELLO: In the snow. ASPATURIAN: Quick sidebar: Do you play poker? TOMBRELLO: No. I don’t play games very well. [Laughter] ASPATURIAN: OK. Carry on. TOMBRELLO: No, but I read—I guess it was in The Economist—that Obama may well be a chess player, but he’s sure not a poker player. ASPATURIAN: Lyndon Johnson was a poker player. TOMBRELLO: Yes! Not my favorite president, but he certainly knew how to play the game. And Clinton knew how to play the game—different style of poker player, but he knew how to play the game. Astute politicians. And there’s always some of that at universities. It doesn’t dignify the operation. It doesn’t make anybody any money. It doesn’t make operating things any simpler. But playing the role of Dirty Harry is something you sometimes have to do. And I guess I don’t mind doing it. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
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THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO (b. 1936) INTER
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Contact information Archives, Calif
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NOTE TO READERS Per agreement betwe
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Tombrello-iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTE
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Tombrello-vi Session 4 68-72 Colleg
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Tombrello-viii his presidency. Tomb
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Tombrello-x 206-213 Establishes (wi
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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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Tombrello-3 TOMBRELLO: Bisacquino.
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Tombrello-5 TOMBRELLO: This proceed
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Tombrello-7 Memphis, and I believe
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Tombrello-9 otherwise, we mostly we
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Tombrello-11 of the ability of the
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Tombrello-13 truly bigger than life
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Tombrello-15 I associated with the
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Tombrello-17 they’re probably rig
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Tombrello-19 ASPATURIAN: Your thesi
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Tombrello-21 wonderful time. And yo
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Tombrello-23 TOMBRELLO: Let me go o
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Tombrello-25 ASPATURIAN: When you s
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Tombrello-27 We did that again in t
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Tombrello-29 funding our research t
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Tombrello-31 from the NSF grant, bu
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Tombrello-33 doing great stuff, bec
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Tombrello-35 TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t
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Tombrello-37 [Morrisroe Professor o
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Tombrello-39 clearly willing to pay
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Tombrello-41 my teaching assignment
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Tombrello-43 ASPATURIAN: No. TOMBRE
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Tombrello-45 Charlie, that’s numb
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Tombrello-47 heavy ions. Jancaitis
Page 63 and 64: Tombrello-49 because, no surprise,
Page 65 and 66: Tombrello-51 of a wreck somewhere.
Page 67 and 68: Tombrello-53 concurrent computers,
Page 69 and 70: Tombrello-55 your green card.” He
Page 71 and 72: Tombrello-57 USC. She said, “My n
Page 73 and 74: Tombrello-59 video of it. Brian was
Page 75 and 76: Tombrello-61 ASPATURIAN: Without th
Page 77 and 78: Tombrello-63 ASPATURIAN: Consciousn
Page 79 and 80: Tombrello-65 Stone reported this co
Page 81 and 82: Tombrello-67 says, “That is so im
Page 83 and 84: Tombrello-69 basement was where I l
Page 85 and 86: Tombrello-71 Graaff generators] at
Page 87 and 88: Tombrello-73 groups at Chicago, and
Page 89 and 90: Tombrello-75 TOMBRELLO: I think it
Page 91 and 92: Tombrello-77 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I reme
Page 93 and 94: Tombrello-79 TOMBRELLO: Well, it wa
Page 95 and 96: Tombrello-81 were made up of these
Page 97 and 98: Tombrello-83 TOMBRELLO: It had a re
Page 99 and 100: Tombrello-85 ASPATURIAN: It wasn’
Page 101 and 102: Tombrello-87 Remington bronzes but
Page 103 and 104: Tombrello-89 He’d done all kinds
Page 105 and 106: Tombrello-91 side, with totally ira
Page 107 and 108: Tombrello-93 TOMBRELLO: Yes. It too
Page 109 and 110: Tombrello-95 wouldn’t have asked
Page 111 and 112: Tombrello-97 U.S. independent of fo
Page 113: Tombrello-99 own operating people a
Page 117 and 118: Tombrello-103 Six months later, “
Page 119 and 120: Tombrello-105 necessary—that was
Page 121 and 122: Tombrello-107 make things harder. A
Page 123 and 124: Tombrello-109 TOMBRELLO: It really
Page 125 and 126: Tombrello-111 it. It was clearly an
Page 127 and 128: Tombrello-113 little bit—he had h
Page 129 and 130: Tombrello-115 protons, you didn’t
Page 131 and 132: Tombrello-117 Did she have an affai
Page 133 and 134: Tombrello-119 questions. But Murray
Page 135 and 136: Tombrello-121 marvelous teacher—h
Page 137 and 138: Tombrello-123 ASPATURIAN: What I ha
Page 139 and 140: Tombrello-125 ASPATURIAN: That woul
Page 141 and 142: Tombrello-127 and all sorts of thin
Page 143 and 144: Tombrello-129 ASPATURIAN: Someone e
Page 145 and 146: Tombrello-131 DuBridge interpreted
Page 147 and 148: Tombrello-133 sciences. They were g
Page 149 and 150: Tombrello-135 candidates came and g
Page 151 and 152: Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
Page 153 and 154: Tombrello-139 TOMBRELLO: Yes. But I
Page 155 and 156: Tombrello-141 opposite sides. But h
Page 157 and 158: Tombrello-143 ASPATURIAN: Now, was
Page 159 and 160: Tombrello-145 ASPATURIAN: Really? T
Page 161 and 162: Tombrello-147 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I’d
Page 163 and 164: Tombrello-149 I believe he had a vi
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Tombrello-151 to predict something
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Tombrello-175 And then in the summe
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Tombrello-177 think you need that c
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Tombrello-179 nuclear counterterror
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Tombrello-181 spoiled by that. The
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Tombrello-183 particularly the weap
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Tombrello-185 set up to prevent wea
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Tombrello-187 with those that alrea
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Tombrello-189 powered by solar. The
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Tombrello-191 TOMBRELLO: I know. I
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Tombrello-193 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Tombrello-195 discretionary $19,000
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Tombrello-197 Lange is PMA chairman
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Tombrello-199 Witten’s here, Zewa
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Tombrello-201 There were many thing
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Tombrello-203 the key—the hallmar
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Tombrello-205 TOMBRELLO: Not exactl
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Tombrello-207 pieces of hardware th
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Tombrello-209 TOMBRELLO: It’s nic
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Tombrello-211 Wendy, until well int
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Tombrello-213 realized it was a wor
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Tombrello-215 you try for. But you
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Tombrello-217 TOMBRELLO: He did not
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Tombrello-219 ASPATURIAN: Just a re
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Tombrello-221 ASPATURIAN: How do yo
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Tombrello-223 He’s not dumb. OK.
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Tombrello-225 ASPATURIAN: And incre
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Tombrello-227 could control him. We
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Tombrello-233 down to the late stag
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Tombrello-235 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Tombrello-237 the tandem laboratory
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Tombrello-239 picked Motorola’s 6
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Tombrello-241 ASPATURIAN: How did y
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Tombrello-243 town, staying in a ve
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Tombrello-245 TOMBRELLO: Somebody v
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Tombrello-247 years before, I’d s
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Tombrello-249 as good as you can im
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Tombrello-251 Los Alamos is a wonde
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Tombrello-253 TOMBRELLO: No. I thin
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Tombrello-255 navy, done the submar
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Tombrello-257 TOMBRELLO: —had don
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Tombrello-259 interesting people wh
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Tombrello-261 putting up a substant
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Tombrello-263 TOMBRELLO: I think so
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Tombrello-265 TOMBRELLO: There were
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Tombrello-267 at that, just to see
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Tombrello-269 ASPATURIAN: Is he ori
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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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