Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–61
ASPATURIAN: Without the Southern accent.
TOMBRELLO: Yes. Remember, though, Molly Ivins could put it on or take it off when she
wanted to. She was a Smithie [graduate of Smith College], you know. I remember once saying,
“I would love to see a politician have Molly Ivins as their press representative,” and then Ann
Richards, when she was elected governor of Texas, had Molly Ivins as her press person. Ann
Richards—I loved that woman.
ASPATURIAN: Did you know her, as a native Texan?
TOMBRELLO: My father did. They lived in the same neighborhood in Austin. He did not
approve of Ann Richards at all, but that’s too bad. Actually, they would have liked each other if
they’d ever had time to get acquainted. Different politics completely. But anyway, OK, I don’t
know if we’re finished with the undergrads or not. Do you have any questions about the
undergrads?
ASPATURIAN: One of the first press releases I ever wrote here was about your winning the John
Navas teaching award [1984]. That came back to me as I was going through some background
for these interviews.
TOMBRELLO: Yes. It was only given three times. Fred Shair won it, I won it, and Sunney Chan
[Hoag Professor of Biophysical Chemistry, emeritus] won it. I am honored to be in such
company.
ASPATURIAN: And you won the first Feynman teaching prize [Richard P. Feynman Prize for
Excellence in Teaching; 1994] as well. What is your philosophy of teaching?
TOMBRELLO: Try to figure out what the student needs and try to figure out what each student is
capable of doing, and don’t get locked into either one of those things, because it’s an adaptive
thing. You know, when I taught big classes, like Physics 1, Physics 2, I realized—you’ve got to
meet their eyes. These are big classes, but you’ve got to keep looking at them to see if they’re
following you. You’ve got to somehow get them engaged in it, and it’s hard with the TV
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