A Praiseworthy Payback

The explosive growth in high-tech industries and a soaring stock market have created a new class of rich Americans, producing not just multimillionaires but billionaires in a remarkably brief time. Some among the very wealthy are noted for their tightfistedness. Others have learned to be generous with their money. Add to the latter list Henry Samueli, who after taking leave from his engineering professorship at UCLA made a fortune as co-founder of Broadcom Corp., a communications chip maker. This week, announcing “it’s payback time,” Samueli said he is giving $30 million to UCLA and $20 million to UC Irvine to further engineering education.

Samueli, the son of Holocaust survivors, entered UCLA at 16 and earned three degrees in electrical engineering. Subsequently he taught at UCLA for a decade and in 1995 took a leave to launch his company. Burgeoning growth in the computer, communications and biomedical fields has led the University of California to commit itself to producing many more engineering graduates in the next few years. Samueli’s gifts will help make that possible by paying for new laboratories, undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and endowed faculty chairs.

Moralists, not inappropriately, are quick to condemn the ample signs of private greed in our society. But philanthropy lives. Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Netscape Communications’ Jim Clark are among those who have committed a portion of their wealth to worthy educational and civic ends. Henry Samueli joins that company. May their sense of social responsibility inspire similar magnanimity in others.