Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

Browne–36
BROWNE: They didn’t want me in the direction. You see, I had become kind of outspoken on
certain questions. Well, I was always outspoken. But I think that Everhart and them decided
that they did not want to make any special efforts to do anything, except for the people they
wanted.
COHEN: You mean not a program beforehand to set students up?
BROWNE: That kind of thing. Also, there were some politics, like the UCLA politics, where
certain alumni could get their kids in when others couldn’t who were better qualified. Things
like that. They wanted it to be kind of an “old-boys” school again. And remember, Caltech was
set up basically for Caucasian male students. [Chuckle]
COHEN: That’s correct. That seems out of sync with the times.
BROWNE: It seems out of sync, but that’s the way I think it was with Everhart.
COHEN: Did someone actually say to you, “We want the program to go in a different direction”?
BROWNE: They said things like, “Well, we have some other things in mind,” which I thought,
based on who they hired to try to take my place—they hired two Mexican Americans.
COHEN: So you think they decided that they had to go more into the Latino society?
BROWNE: Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I think that was a serious mistake, because that kind of
background—there are so many more things open to Latinos in the state and in Texas and other
places than there are to African Americans. But then, I was as useful to Latinos as anybody they
could have ever gotten, because I didn’t have a reaction to them. But that was kind of the feeling
I got. And that’s why they hired—the first guy they hired, theoretically, did something with
money. And the next guy just got lost.
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