Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

Browne–28
BROWNE: There would be quite a few who’d start out on Saturdays, but then it would become
boring. You remember that math and science and stuff like that are very, very difficult for kids
who don’t hear it at home. Well, for any kid, not just minority kids—any kid who doesn’t hear it
at home.
COHEN: That isn’t getting at least some help in sitting down and doing it.
BROWNE: Right. But I tried to motivate the kids. I had a lecture series, the classes in the
summer, the classes on Saturdays, Thursday classes at Washington Junior High School—
COHEN: And whatever you decided to do Caltech really supported?
BROWNE: Yes. There was no problem with it because I started raising money on my own to pay
for a lot of things. When I left here, I left $190,000 in my accounts.
COHEN: Who did you get money from?
BROWNE: Oh, let’s see. There were people like, say, Xerox. There were certain Caltech alumni
who were interested that gave money. I left $190,000 here.
COHEN: And for the programs you ran, actually, you used graduate students as volunteers?
BROWNE: Or I paid them in the summer.
COHEN: In summer you paid them.
BROWNE: Yes.
COHEN: Now, how successful, in some sense, was this? How many of these students then really
went on to Caltech?
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