Interview with Frank Oppenheimer - Caltech Oral Histories

Oppenheimer–31OPPENHEIMER: I don’t think so. I think they got on famously. I don’t know how Tommy felt,because I never had any . . . . He didn’t act as though there were any problem. And he got hisown niche there pretty soon. What was it he did? Tabulating things?GOODSTEIN: That’s right. So it was different from what his father did. He carved out his ownniche, that’s true.OPPENHEIMER: Caltech was a lovely place to go to get a degree, partly because of Charlie’sgroup, but partly because of the contacts with other people.GOODSTEIN: Was the general level of the Institute one of excitement?OPPENHEIMER: Yes.GOODSTEIN: It was a very small place then, too.OPPENHEIMER: It was a small place, but the people in aeronautics were doing interesting things,and I knew them through Malina and Tsien. And Carl and Seth. And then [Jesse] DuMond—Ididn’t have much contact with him, but enough to know what he was up to.GOODSTEIN: So there must have been informal ways to know what everybody was doing.OPPENHEIMER: That’s right. I don’t know what they were exactly.GOODSTEIN: Well, did you eat lunch together?OPPENHEIMER: Sometimes. But there was nothing formal. Let’s see, one ate at the Athenaeumoccasionally—maybe more regularly. That was one way. I know Jackie and I, when we ran outof money towards the end of the month, we’d always go to the Athenaeum, because you couldeat and charge it. [Laughter]http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oppenheimer_F