Caltech Notables Raise Their Glasses for Beckman’s 100th Birthday
Caltech’s favorite son and most generous benefactor, Arnold O. Beckman, was feted with a glittering black-tie bash to mark his 100th birthday April 10. A tent was erected on Beckman Mall, where an academic A-list gathered to honor the man whom Caltech trustee George Argyros called “the true American Horatio Alger.”
Beckman, the son of an Illinois blacksmith, came to Caltech in 1923 as a graduate student. He had crossed the country with his new bride, Mabel, in a flat-tire-prone Model T (19 in one day, he recalled). In 1934, Beckman was asked to make a device to measure the acid level in lemon juice for a California citrus-processing plant. His pH meter, a vast improvement over litmus paper, was the first of his inventions that helped to revolutionize research, and marked the beginning of the Beckman Instruments empire.
Through their foundation, the Beckmans have given more than $270 million to U.S. research institutions.
“He made chemistry a quantitative science,” noted former Caltech President Tom Everhart.
Gordon Moore, chairman of the Caltech trustees, added, “Arnold also played a significant role in bringing the silicon to Silicon Valley with his early-on investment in the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory [in Palo Alto]. All the spinoffs and start-ups followed.”
“He’s an amazing man who can’t see or hear too well now, but he can still think,” said former Caltech President Harold Brown, who was recruited in 1969 by Beckman.
Joining in the tributes were Caltech President David Baltimore, Harry Gray, Peter Dervan, Ruben Mettler, Shirley Hufstedler, Louis Rosso and former Gov. Pete Wilson.
Guests took home a lunch box containing lemon drops and pencils inscribed with Beckman’s rules for success, which include: “Don’t take yourself too seriously” and “Practice moderation in all things . . . including moderation.”
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“My mother was an orphan,” said honoree Julie Nixon Eisenhower at last week’s luncheon fund-raiser for USC’s Town and Gown, the 96-year-old organization that administers scholarships. “She once told me she couldn’t even afford lipstick when she was in school. That’s why she was so pleased by this fund in her name.”
The former first lady was a scholarship student at USC during the Depression, and the day’s proceeds benefited the university’s Patricia Nixon Scholarship Fund.In the past year, the fund, which has a $25-million endowment, has provided $805,000 in scholarships to 209 students, said co-chairwomen Mary Kay Arbuthnot and Norma Hart.
Eisenhower told the crowd that despite coming from a political family and marrying into one, she never aspired to run for office.
“My confusion about the two-party system dates back to when I was about 3 years old,” said Eisenhower. “A roving cub photographer named Jackie Bouvier from the now-defunct Washington Times-Herald appeared in our frontyard where I was playing. Her question for me--which appeared the next day with my picture--was: ‘Do you play with Democrats?’ My answer was ‘What’s a Democrat?’ I’m still trying to figure that one out.”
