Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

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Browne–40 BROWNE: You can’t just sit back and wait. COHEN: Yes. BROWNE: You see, I used to send kids to school here from Blair and Muir. And they would come to me and say, “Listen, Mr. Browne. Can you show me what the hell this guy was talking about? I’m lost.” And I’d say, “Well, here’s the key to this. And if you’d redo that, you might understand that.” And then he’d call me up and say, “I got it.” So you have to really— COHEN: Dig. You have to know how to dig. BROWNE: You’ve got to really dig. COHEN: OK. So you really were here for a long time. BROWNE: Twenty-something years. COHEN: And you ran good programs. BROWNE: Well, made money. COHEN: And then things changed, because people wanted to do it differently. BROWNE: Well, yes. And I never argued with them. I mean, you don’t ever see me hanging around Caltech. I’m not a Caltech hanger-on. [Chuckle] That is, I never went to see—what’s her name that went to the minority office? Cheryll Hawthorne. I never have met her. COHEN: So there’s been a succession of people, but the programs have been different? BROWNE: Yes. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Browne_L
Browne–41 COHEN: There are still some outreach programs where kids come, but they are done in different ways? BROWNE: Yes. The first guy thought that by buying them pizzas and having parties they’d like him and do what they had to do. And I thought [that] if I could get them to go to tutors… [Chuckle] Do you understand? COHEN: Yes, yes. BROWNE: Because that’s what Caltech is all about. It’s not about social life. COHEN: That’s right. BROWNE: Caltech pretends that it’s about social life, but it’s not about social life. It’s about working yourself to death. COHEN: Yes. So there aren’t a lot of minority students here anymore. BROWNE: Of course not. COHEN: Unless you want to figure in Asians, of which there are many. BROWNE: No, no. But that’s not— COHEN: That’s different. BROWNE: That’s different. You can’t have minority students here if you don’t have someone— you see, I used to go to all of these—I’d visit 200 high schools a year. COHEN: Yes. 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 and 26: Browne-21 BROWNE: You see? And I ha
Page 27 and 28: Browne-23 communities—“…that
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: Browne-39 COHEN: Can you tell me? B
Page 47: Browne-43 COHEN: But you certainly

Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

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