Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–140
ASPATURIAN: I have a question. The story I’ve heard, and I don’t know if it’s accurate, was that
Barclay had something to do with Lee [Leroy E.] Hood’s dismissal from the Division of Biology
[division chairman 1980-89] and that this, in turn, caused problems that led to Professor Kamb’s
stepping down from the provost’s position.
TOMBRELLO: That I don’t know. Lee Hood was a friend. I still see him occasionally.
ASPATURIAN: He’s in Seattle [Institute for Systems Biology] still, I believe.
TOMBRELLO: Yup. Doing his own things. Lee I had first met because he was a friend of Andy
Bacher’s when he was a grad student. He’d come back from medical school to be a PhD student
in biology. He’s a very interesting guy. Knew them, knew Mary Ann. Mary Ann? No—
ASPATURIAN: Valerie.
TOMBRELLO: Valerie. The kids were Mary Ann and Leo. They were about the same age as
Kerstin, our youngest. I have always been a fan of Lee Hood. But he played by a different set of
rules. Was somewhat bigger than life. The Biology Division is not sociologically wholesome.
Maybe one of their problems. They’re good, but they don’t work together—they don’t play
nicely with others. Lee made enemies within the division and that probably ended up getting
him, as much as anything. I believe the provost gets caught in the job of solving that, sort of like
the Wasserburg thing in GPS. You have to get rid of them and put somebody else in, and in the
GPS case they put in, for a short time, Goldreich. Goldreich was willing to do it as an interim
division chair.
ASPATURIAN: So after Barclay Kamb, we had—was it Paul Jennings [professor
of civil engineering and applied mechanics, emeritus]?
TOMBRELLO: Yes, I believe that’s when Jennings came in [1989-95]. Paul was an interesting
choice, and clearly, in many ways, the first coming of Jennings was maybe not as successful as
the second coming. [Jennings served for a second time as provost in 2004-07]—ed.] But at the
same time, it was successful. He got caught up in the LIGO mess. And we were slightly on
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T