Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–35
TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t listening. Because I figured we needed the money and had to keep the
facility running.
ASPATURIAN: Understood.
TOMBRELLO: So the NSF is trying to keep Willy happy, and the way to keep Willy happy—well,
Robbie [Rochus E.] Vogt [R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Service Professor and professor of
physics, emeritus] got involved in it in a very heavy-handed way. He was going to drive me out
of Caltech. It was very simple.
ASPATURIAN: At this time, Robbie was the provost?
TOMBRELLO: Yes.
ASPATURIAN: So then we’re in the early 1980s.
TOMBRELLO: Yes, ’82-’83. So we’re out at Palm Springs, with the girls, and Stephanie says, “I
don’t understand why you’ve got such problems.” I said, “You don’t? Why not?” She says,
“Well, let me just count. The president’s science advisor is a guy you consulted for at Los
Alamos.”
ASPATURIAN: And who was this?
TOMBRELLO: Jay [George] Keyworth. She says, “He obviously likes you a lot.” I said, “True.”
She says, “Your friend, with whom you work and get on really well, Ed [Edward Alan] Knapp,
he’s head of the National Science Foundation.” I said, “True.” And she says, “The guy you
worked with at Yale, Allan Bromley, is basically running PSAP [President’s Science Advisory
Panel]”—now it’s PCAST [President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology]. And
she says, “I don’t understand why you’re having any problem. Those people like you, would do
anything for you, and they don’t really care about Willy at all.” [Laughter] I said, “You know,
when you put it that way, I should write three letters.” So I wrote three letters. And I get this
phone call one day from Ed Knapp, who says, “We’ll fix it.”
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