Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–66 I had an interesting conversation a couple of weeks ago. I have a friend; he got fired from his job last summer as athletic director at USC. His name is Mike Garrett. Mike has decided he would like to be athletic director at Caltech. Now, he’s a very unusual candidate for athletic director for Caltech. They’re considering him. I hope it doesn’t hurt his chances that he’s a friend of mine. Mike is a Heisman Trophy winner. He has a Super Bowl ring from playing with the Kansas City Chiefs. He has a law degree, which he got while he was playing pro football. He has for seventeen years been running an $80-million-a-year program at USC, where every year he had to raise it all from scratch. And he clawed his way up out of the lower part of society and brought his family with him. Could he give Caltech something? Could he give our students something? I think he could, if they’re smart enough to hire him. He called me and said, “They put me off until January.” I said, “That’s because we’re academics and we take the Christmas holiday. Exams are over, Mike. They just gave up on the committee work on the athletic director job.” I said, “How’d your interviews go?” He said, “Very interesting. Would you like to guess what the student athletes wanted?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “They want to win.” I said, “Everybody wants to win. Are they willing to pay the price?” He said, “These kids were. I can help them.” And that’s the whole trick of teaching. Well, I have to tell a story. Garrulous old professors are full of stories. When Stephanie and I got married, I was about to go off and do a month of public lectures in Australia, and we took two of the girls—Karen and Kerstin. We were going to different cities in Australia. I was giving public lectures, university lectures, losing my voice. And one weekend they hadn’t scheduled us and so we went to a sheep station that was owned by somebody. Have I told you this story? ASPATURIAN: No. I’m laughing because the idea of a sheep station sounds pretty good to me. TOMBRELLO: I am a big-city boy. I would have rather been in Sydney, I think, or Melbourne, or Adelaide, but we’re out in the boonies with a gazillion sheep. So they ask Stephanie what she’d like to see, and she says, “Well, I’d like to see a sheepdog work, and our youngest”—Kerstin was six at the time—“would like to pat a lamb.” The guy says, “Done.” And so we go out and there’s this little dog of no discernible breed—these are not shelties—a little black dog. It moves a million sheep, and at the end of it there’s a lamb sitting in front of our daughter. Stephanie http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–67 says, “That is so impressive. How do you teach them to do it?” The guy says, “Well, to be honest, they either can do it or they can’t do it. But I can sure make ’em better at it.” I thought, “I have got my education philosophy.” How do you make them better at it? You can’t put something there that’s not there. But if it’s there, you can sure as hell improve it. If you want educational philosophy, that’s it. I’m training sheepdogs. ASPATURIAN: On that note— TOMBRELLO: OK. 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
Page 29 and 30: Tombrello-15 I associated with the
Page 31 and 32: Tombrello-17 they’re probably rig
Page 33 and 34: Tombrello-19 ASPATURIAN: Your thesi
Page 35 and 36: Tombrello-21 wonderful time. And yo
Page 37 and 38: Tombrello-23 TOMBRELLO: Let me go o
Page 39 and 40: Tombrello-25 ASPATURIAN: When you s
Page 41 and 42: Tombrello-27 We did that again in t
Page 43 and 44: Tombrello-29 funding our research t
Page 45 and 46: Tombrello-31 from the NSF grant, bu
Page 47 and 48: Tombrello-33 doing great stuff, bec
Page 49 and 50: Tombrello-35 TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t
Page 51 and 52: Tombrello-37 [Morrisroe Professor o
Page 53 and 54: Tombrello-39 clearly willing to pay
Page 55 and 56: Tombrello-41 my teaching assignment
Page 57 and 58: Tombrello-43 ASPATURIAN: No. TOMBRE
Page 59 and 60: Tombrello-45 Charlie, that’s numb
Page 61 and 62: 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: Tombrello-65 Stone reported this co
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 and 114: Tombrello-99 own operating people a
Page 115 and 116: Tombrello-101 particularly in compa
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
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Tombrello-117 Did she have an affai
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Tombrello-119 questions. But Murray
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Tombrello-121 marvelous teacher—h
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Tombrello-123 ASPATURIAN: What I ha
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Tombrello-125 ASPATURIAN: That woul
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Tombrello-127 and all sorts of thin
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Tombrello-129 ASPATURIAN: Someone e
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Tombrello-131 DuBridge interpreted
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Tombrello-133 sciences. They were g
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Tombrello-135 candidates came and g
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Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
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Tombrello-139 TOMBRELLO: Yes. But I
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Tombrello-141 opposite sides. But h
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Tombrello-143 ASPATURIAN: Now, was
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Tombrello-145 ASPATURIAN: Really? T
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Tombrello-147 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I’d
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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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