Harvey Mudd College – Oral History Program Archive

Harvey Mudd College Special Projects

Davenport, William H. (b.1908)

Humanities and Social Sciences Chairmen

Founding Faculty, 1990

Chaired the Humanities and Social Science Department from 1957 to 1968. From
1968 to 1973, he was the Willard W. Keith Fellow in Humanities. From 1973 to 1983.
He taught part time as an emeritus professor. Here, Davenport discusses his early
academic career, the designing of the Harvey Mudd curriculum and the role and
funding of the humanities at Harvey Mudd, the college community and the growth
of the college.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Garrett, Marian Thomas [Mrs. Leroy A.]

Trustee

1988

Marian Garrett was the wife of Leroy A. Garrett, personal attorney for the
Mudd family and founding board member of the college. After her husband’s death
in 1963, Mrs. Garrett was appointed to the board. She discusses her husband’s
life and work as well as her own service on the Buildings and Grounds Committee
and other Claremont Colleges Committees.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Hastings, Robert P. (b. 1910)

Trustee

1990

Robert Hastings served on the Board of Trustees from 1956 to 1985. He discusses
relationships between the Hastings and Mudd families, his relationship with and
impressions of Henry Mudd, President Joseph Platt, and the founding board members.
He also talks about land exchanges and housing negotiations with Scripps College.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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McKelvey, George I. III. (b. 1925)

Founding Staff Member

1991

George McKelvey was the Director of Development from 1957 to 1968, Vice President
for Development from 1968 to 1988 and the Vice President of the College from 1988
to 1990. He discusses his early acquaintance with Joseph Platt at the University
of Rochester, his role in creating and building the development office and the
original trustees of the college.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Mudd, Henry T.

Harvey Mudd College Board

Son of Harvey Mudd, Member of Founding Board, and Chairman of Board, 1985

Henry Mudd recalls the beginning of the concept of a new engineering college
as part of the Claremont Group Plan, the philanthropic tradition of the Mudd family,
and the various responses of the extended Mudd family to the idea of this college.
He speaks of the role of Leroy Garrett in seeking funds and the selection of the
first president of the college. Mr. Mudd succeeded his mother, Mildred E. Mudd
as chairman of the board during the time when the decision to admit women was
made.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Platt, Jean Ferguson [Mrs. Joseph B. Platt]

President’s Wife

Wife of Founding President of Harvey Mudd College, 1988

Jean Platt discusses her childhood, education, and work for Polaroid. After
their marriage the Platts moved to Rochester, where Joseph Platt held a faculty
position at the University of Rochester. Her husband accepted the presidency of
the newly founded Harvey Mudd College and they moved to Claremont, California.
She discusses their initial housing and the construction of the new home for the
president. Mrs. Platt speaks of the faculty wives of the college and the close-knit
feeling of the college community in the 1950s. She discusses the tenure she next
served as wife of the president of the Claremont Graduate School.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Platt, Joseph B. (b. 1915)

President

1989

Joseph Platt served as the president of Harvey Mudd College from 1956 to 1976.
He discusses the birth of the college, including details of funding, construction
and the college community.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

Wickes, George C. (b. 1923)

Professor of English

1989

Wickes was one of the founding faculty members of Harvey Mudd College in 1957
and worked as an unofficial historian of the college in a personal diary of the
early years. He discusses his service in the O.S.S. in Vietnam and his early academic
career although emphasis is on his tenure at Harvey Mudd and his relationship
with Joseph Platt.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

Restricted Interview. Contact us for more information. Top of page.

Origins of the Atomic Age Project

This project was initiated in 1975 by Harvey Mudd College of Engineering, one
of the Claremont Colleges. The focus of the project is not so much the details
of the scientific research, but rather on the social and political implications.
of scientific developments since 1940. The completed interviews are deposited
in the Sprague Library at Harvey Mudd College.

Campbell, J. Arthur (b.1917)

Chemist

1975

James Arthur Campbell earned his doctorate in chemistry in 1942 from the University
of California at Berkeley with Dr. Roger Hildebrand. He remained at Berkeley until
1945 to teach and to work in the Manhattan Project. Mr. Campbell talks about the
nature of his involvement in the Manhattan Project, the secrecy of scientific
work during wartime, and of his concern that there be civilian control of atomic
energy. Nuclear power development as it relates to the earth’s long-term environment
and the energy problem is also discussed.

Interviewer: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program.

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Focke, Alfred B. (b.1906)

Physicist

1975

Alfred B. Focke served as a Physicist in civilian capacity for the Navy Bureau
of Ordnance during World War II. After the war, Dr. Focke worked in various capacities
at the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. In 1954 he became Scientific
Director of Operation WIGWAM, which was the testing of the first deep underwater
nuclear explosion. Dr. Focke joined the faculty of Harvey Mudd College as Professor
of Physics where he remained until his retirement in 1971. Dr. Focke describes
in detail the wartime research he did for the Bureau of Ordnance and he described
the advantages of his civilian status in dealing with the military. He also discusses
nuclear stockpiling and the possibilities of atomic war.

Interviewers: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program; John B. Rae, Professor
of History, Harvey Mudd College.

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Goudsmit, Samuel Abraham (b.1902)

Physicist

1976

Samuel Goudsmit was born in Den Hague, the Netherlands. In 1925 he and George
Uhlenbeck, a fellow doctoral student at the University of Leiden, discovered the
electron spin, a fundamental contribution to quantum mechanics. In 1927 he joined
the Physics faculty at the University of Michigan. From 1942 to 1946 he was on
leave to the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
and in 1944 he was named civilian head of a secret mission, ALSOS, to ascertain
German progress in atomic research. After the war, he worked at the Brookhaven
National Laboratory and in 1951 he assumed the position of editor-in-chief of
the American Physical Society. Dr. Goudsmit speaks of the distinguished scientists
he met during his years at Leiden, relates the details of the ALSOS mission, and
compares the development of science in the United States and in Europe.

Interviewers: Graydon D. Bell, Professor of Physics, Harvey Mudd College; Enid
H. Douglass, Oral History Program; John B. Rae, Professor of History, Harvey Mudd
College.

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Rojansky, Vladimir

See Rojansky,
Vladimir in World War
II: Persecution and Uprising

Platt, Joseph B. (b.1915)

Physicist

1975

Joseph B. Platt received his academic degree in physics, completing his doctorate
at Cornell University in 1942. During World War II, he worked on radar devices
and served as a civilian assigned to the European and Pacific theaters. In 1949
he joined the research staff of the Atomic Energy Commission as Chief of the Physics
Branch. In 1956, Dr. Platt was appointed the founding president of Harvey Mudd
College, the fifth college established as part of the Claremont Colleges Group
Plan, and designed as a small residential college of physical science and engineering.
The interview relates Joseph Platt’s experiences in graduate school, where many
of his fellow physicists later became involved in the Manhattan Project. He discusses
the Atomic Energy Commission and his perception of the relationship between science
and government.

Interviewers: Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program, John B. Rae, Professor
of History (Harvey Mudd College).

Spilhaus, Athelstan (b.1911)

Scientist

1975

Born in the Union of South Africa in 1911, Athelstan Spilhaus was educated
in South Africa, England, and the United States. Dr. Spilhaus was professional
and public service affiliations nationally and internationally and has received
many honors as a renowned meteorologist, oceanographer, and educator. He reminisces
about the development of his interests in engineering, aeronautics, meteorology
and oceanography. He discusses weather prediction and the collection of debris
in the atmosphere to detect nuclear explosions. Dr. Spilhaus also recounts his
experiences while director of atomic weapons tests in Nevada in 1951.

Interviewers: J. Arthur Campbell, Professor of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College;
Enid H. Douglass, Oral History Program; Alfred B. Focke, Senior Professor, Emeritus
of Physics, Harvey Mudd College.

Restricted Interview. Contact us for more information. Top of page.