Overdue Celebration for Nobel Laureate
Even Nobel laureates are baffled by the imperfect age of electronics. When Caltech Prof. Rudolph A. Marcus got word of his prize in chemistry on Dec. 10, he was at a seminar in Toronto. The official message was delivered on his home answering machine.
The problem: Everyone was away. Elated when informed of his honor by a fellow scientist, the new laureate tried to reach his wife, who was visiting three sisters. She’d left three numbers. He talked to one answering machine and got no answer at the other two numbers. Then he called two sons--and got two more answering machines. A call to a third son went unanswered.
“For more than an hour, I had no one to share this with,” Marcus lamented Monday evening at the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington, where Caltech Associates hosted a celebration for him.
However, he’s kept the tape of the original message. “I just don’t know where it is,” he confessed, standing amid 400 guests, including three other Nobel laureates who had come to congratulate him. A prideful Caltech President, Tom Everhart, introduced Marcus, attending with his wife, Laura, who wore the long turquoise brocade two-piece suit she had worn at the Nobel gala in Stockholm.
Nobel laureates formed a coterie around Marcus--Nico Bloembergen (who came from Harvard with his wife, Deli), William Fowler and Yuan Lee, as well as Jerry Wasserburg, winner of the Swedish Crafoord Prize.
It was a glittery night. Astronomer Anneila Sargent was stunning in black satin with appliqued stars and moons. Ninety-two-year-old Arrola DuBridge, vivacious and witty wife of Caltech’s former president, Lee DuBridge, sparkled like the North Star and almost stole the show when she walked in on the arm of Doris Everhart, Caltech’s first lady. Lee DuBridge was home, not feeling well.
Caltech trustees were in abundance--William Kieschnick (with wife, Keith), down from the Napa Valley; Judge Shirley Hufstedler, Tory Atkins and Jewel Plummer Cobb.
New Associates President George Smith staged a short video of Marcus receiving his honors at the Stockholm Town Hall. “Really, really educational, and so interesting,” said Mary Marshall, there with husband, Boyd.
More in the crowd: Dr. George and Martha Mulfinger (he had done Marcus’ hip replacement), Hannah Bradley, Evelyn Bray, Sharon Black, Ben and Pat Earl and television’s Jess and Phyllis Marlow.
Commented Marcus about his work: “The road to Stockholm consisted of lucky events and conscious decisions.” With charts, he tried to show that it was as simple as downhill skiing, which he likes to do.
*
40TH CELEBRATION: The Los Angeles World Affairs Council celebrated its 40th anniversary Monday evening at Chasen’s, giving its fourth annual “Diplomat of the Year” award to Vladimir Lukin, ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States.
There was a stellar crowd of more than 170--the council’s chairman Richard Stegemeier and wife, Marge, the council’s president Curtis Mack and his wife, Tamara, Eli Broad, Joyce and Kent Kresa, Jean Smith with Eddie Albert, Norman and Erlenne Sprague, Marion and Earle Jorgensen, Ruth and Thomas Jones, Ghada and Ray Irani, Kenneth G. Docter, Helen and Dr. Ivan Getting, Caroline Ahmanson, Patricia and Lee Atwood, Mary Helen and Samuel P. Bell, Diane and Guilford Glazer, Jeanne and George A. Roberts, Noriko and Tamotsu Yamaguchi, Mary Jane and Charles Wick, Betty and former Ambassador to the Vatican William Wilson, Flora Thornton with Eric Small, Suzanne and Michael Tennenbaum, Anne and Kirk Douglas and Joyce and Ray Watt.
The ambassador talked about reform in Russia: “The transition to a market economy is painful,” he said. “We have tried to achieve too much, too quickly in too simple a manner.” Yet, he added, the federation remains committed to democracy.
*
KUDOS: To Santa Marta Hospital Foundation’s eighth annual Life Spirit Awardees: Lawrence and Rebecca Del Santo. He’s chairman and CEO of Lucky Stores, and they were honored for their humanitarian service in southern and northern California, where they now live.
It was fitting the master of ceremonies came from the food industry, too: Bill Davila, president emeritus of Vons and a foundation board member.
Word is out that the affair for nearly 800 raised $350,000. Plaudits to co-chairs Carolyn and Robert Hermanns of Laguna Hills and Ruth and Miles Turpin of San Marino and to numerous supporters including John and Dorothy Shea of San Marino (she’s a cousin of the new Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit).
*
ESCALATION: The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, inaugurates its new downtown location with a gala dance Friday and a ribbon-cutting at noon Saturday . . . J. Paul Getty Museum Director John Walsh Jr. laid the red carpet for a reception/dinner for the Board of Fellows of the Claremont University Center and Graduate School . . . .
Clarice Ellis, Fashion Circle chairman, and Jane Ackerman, Costume Council chairman (of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art), put a shine on their black-tie dinner at The Bistro honoring English designer Zandra Rhodes. The Smithsonian Institute has designated her one of the “famous women of fashion” . . . .
Joan Irvine Smith launched the Irvine Museum and its collection of California art with an opening drawing Southlanders from near and far . . . Wells Fargo Bank’s Chairman Carl E. Reichardt was in the spotlight with artist George Carlson at a benefactors’ reception launching Carlson’s “Dignity in Art” exhibition, now at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum . . . .
Angelenos in Washington when former President Ronald Reagan received the Medal of Freedom Award from then-President George Bush included Nancy Reagan, Mary Jane and Charles Wick, Jean Smith, Donna and Bob Tuttle, Marion and Earle Jorgensen, John and Connie Gavin, Suzanne Marx and Fred and Genevieve Ryan.
