Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Browne–22 finally he said, “Have you seen a man who has come in here looking for me?” And I said, “What was his name?” And he said, “Lee Browne.” I said, “That’s me.” COHEN: [Chuckle] BROWNE: He didn’t know I was an African-American. Joanna never told him. Of course, she would tell him, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, and this man does.” [Laughter] So he said, “Oh, my, I messed up this time.” It was about 5:30 then. I was supposed to be there at a quarter to five, or something. So he said, “Well, come on in here and let’s talk. I can’t stay long.” So we finally left at 9:45 that night. [Chuckle] He and I talked a long time. He was not an American, you know. COHEN: No, he was Dutch. BROWNE: Yes. He was a Dutch man, or Swedish or something. COHEN: Dutch. BROWNE: He said, “My, I’ve never heard anything like that in all my life.” Anyway, that’s just how much of it worked. Like Waser had a daughter—a man named Jürg Waser. He may have been gone when you came. And they wanted to give an award to somebody that taught chemistry. So they gave it to a guy in Arcadia. But he told me one day, “You were their choice, until they found out who you were.” I never believed him, but that’s what he told me. They gave it to some guy out there. But I quit letting any of that bother me, because I felt that people have training, and they’ve been kissed by their parents with this stuff, and you can’t change them, so I can’t fight that. So finally they told me they wanted me to come to work at Caltech. And they offered me a lot of money, maybe twice as much money as I was making in the schools. I said, “I don’t really need all that money, because I’ve made an adjustment to live a certain way. So I’m not coming to work at Caltech for money. If I come to work at Caltech, it will be because I feel that we haven’t been doing the kinds of things in the minority community”—well, I don’t like to use the word “minority,” but in the black and other non-white http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Browne_L
Browne–23 communities—“…that we should have been doing. And I would be trying to let those people have a shot at a place like Caltech.” COHEN: What did they want you to do here? BROWNE: Well, they wanted me to— COHEN: When you say “they,” is there a person in particular that approached you? BROWNE: Well, there was Lyman Bonner. He played some role, but not a leadership role. See, I don’t think Lyman Bonner was a full faculty member in the same sense. But what-was-hisname was president? DuBridge. COHEN: Yes. BROWNE: Lee DuBridge. And there were some others. Robert Leighton. COHEN: OK. BROWNE: Yes. COHEN: So they were anxious for you to come to Caltech to do what? BROWNE: They wanted me to see if I could get them some good students. COHEN: Minority students? BROWNE: No. Good students. They knew my students at Blair and Muir had won all the fivecounty chemistry tests. [Chuckle] They figured I knew more about selecting students than the admissions office did. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Browne_L
Page 1 and 2: LEE F. BROWNE (b. 1922) INTERVIEWED
Page 3 and 4: Lee Brown with the Black Students U
Page 5 and 6: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Page 7 and 8: Browne-3 BROWNE: Oh, yes. But by th
Page 9 and 10: Browne-5 business of killing and cu
Page 11 and 12: Browne-7 COHEN: Yes. BROWNE: Well,
Page 13 and 14: Browne-9 BROWNE: Well, they said th
Page 15 and 16: Browne-11 BROWNE: So I wrote them.
Page 17 and 18: Browne-13 COHEN: Yes. BROWNE: And g
Page 19 and 20: Browne-15 BROWNE: So I did that. An
Page 21 and 22: Browne-17 COHEN: It was a very good
Page 23 and 24: Browne-19 he said that he didn’t
Page 25: Browne-21 BROWNE: You see? And I ha
Page 29 and 30: Browne-25 COHEN: And what was it ca
Page 31 and 32: Browne-27 COHEN: So you came in abo
Page 33 and 34: Browne-29 BROWNE: A large number of
Page 35 and 36: Browne-31 COHEN: Were you having fu
Page 37 and 38: Browne-33 COHEN: OK. BROWNE: And I
Page 39 and 40: Browne-35 their nationality. So I
Page 41 and 42: Browne-37 COHEN: But now, I’m try
Page 43 and 44: Browne-39 COHEN: Can you tell me? B
Page 45 and 46: Browne-41 COHEN: There are still so
Page 47: Browne-43 COHEN: But you certainly

Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?