Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–69
basement was where I lived, and I kept my nose very close to what I was doing. I did not look
around Caltech much. The only things I knew about Caltech were the social friends we had,
because, as I think I mentioned earlier, we were all young together. People with kids got
together in the evenings. There were impromptu dinners at other people’s houses. There was
socialization within Kellogg because of a tradition they had. On Friday nights, they had the
Kellogg seminar, and then afterward there was a party in somebody’s house. It was usually at
Tommy Lauritsen’s house, occasionally at Willy’s or Charlie Barnes’s or Ralph Kavanagh’s.
But usually it was Tommy and Marge Lauritsen who had the party. You brought your own beer,
but whoever was doing the party put out hors d’oeuvres, munchies. There was music. There
were a lot of people to talk to. It was a very friendly arrangement. It was a core of the social
life. You got to meet people almost immediately. Some people from around the campus came.
Ricardo Gomez from high-energy physics was always there. Sometimes Bob Christy, who had
originally been in Kellogg, was there. His then wife, Dagmar, did not come to very many of the
parties; I only met her later at smaller gatherings. I think some of the women got tired of the
Kellogg parties. They were noisy. People were drinking a bit too much—people having a very
good time.
ASPATURIAN: Was there sort of a frat-house atmosphere, do you think?
TOMBRELLO: Not quite. It wasn’t at that level. But it was much more of the level of a party
where people were just happy—lots of conversation, lots of eating, drinking; mostly beer; a little
bit of aquavit because of the Danish connection to the Lauritsens. I have to describe the
personnel in Kellogg.
ASPATURIAN: Please.
TOMBRELLO: The person who had started it was Charlie Lauritsen. There is plenty of stuff in
the Archives about Charlie. There are even books about him. He had been an electrical engineer
trained in Denmark before he came to this country. He was working in a radio factory
somewhere out in the Midwest when [Robert A.] Millikan [chairman of Caltech’s Executive
Council 1921-45] came through town and gave a public lecture. Charlie picked up stakes—wife
Sigrid, son Tommy—and off they went to Pasadena, where Charlie became a grad student, a
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