Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Harvey Mudd College Correspondence – to, from and about with Joseph B. Platt, President, and others at Harvey Mudd College, Orange, California

1960-1961

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Carbon of note from Heath to Joseph B. Platt, President,

Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering, Claremont, California

April 30, 1960

 

Dear Dr. Platt:

 

I was glad to receive your note of the 13^th indicating your full recovery and that you were keeping in mind our conversation concerning some possible informal connection with the College that might be of value all around.

 

      I deeply appreciate the compliment implied in this and will certainly be happy to have an opportunity of working informally with you in the direction of the ideals towards which you and the College so finely aspire.

 

      With best compliments to you and Mrs. Platt. I shall look forward to some further word from you.

                               Cordially,

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Note from Heath to Joseph B. Platt, President,

Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineeriing, Claremont, CA

May 13, 1960

 

Dear Dr. Platt:

 

I think you will take a great deal of interest as I have done in this address of Dr. Loren C. Eiseley.

                                    Cordially,

                                    Spencer Heath

 

SH/m

Enc:  “The Image of a University,” Founders Day

 Address at New York University, April 22, 1960

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Carbon of letter from Heath to John B. Rae, Department of Humanities, Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering, Claremont, California

May 29, 1960

 

Dear Dr. Rae:

 

     Following my letter of a few days ago: My grandson has duly explored the attic of my home premises and come up with quite a lot of material in the way of records of the American Propeller and Manufacturing Co., Inc., and its subsidiaries, Premier Plywood, Inc., Key Highway Manufacturing Co., Inc. and Paragon engineers, Inc. He has made a somewhat extended list of these account books of the American Propeller and Mfg. Co. and Paragon engineers, copy of which I am sending.

 

     Among the other things which he found are the following, which I also enclose:

 

Booklet illustrating premises and equipment shortly after World War I.

 

Circular describing the part played by Paragon Propellers in the celebrated NC Navy flight in 1919.

 

Reprint of an article on aeronautical propellers, from the Jrl of the American Society of Naval Engineers, August, 1917.

 

I shall be happy if you find these materials of any historical interest or value.

 

Cordially yours,

 

SH/m

Enclosures: 4

 

P.S.  I enclose also a photo reproduction my grandson obtained of page 526 of Aerial Age Weekly, November 18, 1918, which recounts some of the history of the American Propeller and Manufacturing Co.

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Letter from Joseph B. Platt, President, Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering, Claremont, California, to Heath at 1502 Montgomery Road, Elkridge 27, MD

September 2, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

I thank you for your patience with me. The delay is not just that we have been busy although we have been; it is that I want very much to find a way in which you will come to know our students and faculty, and they you, without formal commitment on either side. We talked about this when you and Mrs. Manning were so kind as to visit me at the Huntington, and I have subsequently discussed the matter with John Rae and Edward Little, but there has been no chance for us all to talk over an arrangement which should, I am convinced, be open ended and tentative, but which should suit your interests and purposes. Since we cannot talk this over readily, let me outline the sort of thing we have in mind and ask whether or not it is of interest to you.

     

      We had thought of proposing that the College make available to you dormi­tory quarters so that you could be resident on the campus. For the coming year, and perhaps for some years thereafter, we will have dormitory space beyond our immediate needs, so the net cost to the College would be pri­marily the furnishing of the room earlier than we otherwise would have done. You would probably wish to add something beyond the rather Spartan standard dormitory equipment. You would be free to come and go as you chose with no fixed duties. The College would provide access to the library for you, and you would be free to attend classes if you chose with the consent of the instructor. If you wish us to arrange meals for you at your cost we could of course do so. No formal faculty connection is proposed; you would be “octogenarian in residence!”

 

      What we would hope to gain from such an arrangement is that our students and faculty would come to know you. Our students will have all sorts of careers but I hope most of them will make creditable contributions to our economy, will have a lively interest in human affairs, and will remain curious and intellectually independent through life. You have done these things, and a model is worth many words. Our students and our faculty are able and busy, and I cannot promise you their attention; you would have to win it. I know, as you do, that John Rae would welcome some help from you on the early days of the aircraft industry. My hunch is that as time went on you would be asked increasingly to talk relatively informally to student groups and to share your background with younger people; this is what I would hope for but cannot command.

 

 I am not certain what you would gain! It would, I think, be well to have a job in mind; my own experience is that people are more apt to come to me when I am busy than when I wait for them. What John Rae would want of you immediately is, I suppose at most, a few weeks’ work. You may have research and writing of your own in mind for which we would have facilities. My personal reaction to your book (for which I thank you!) was that you introduced some provocative and unifying concepts which will, I hope, continue to stimulate thinking for generations to come, but that the argument was weakened unnecessarily by analogies in the physical sciences which are far from clearly drawn. The ideas that survive in the free market are those that have weathered much criticism, and this is a commun­ity in which you can obtain criticism if you want it. But this is your business, not mine; what I am groping for is a project which would be consonant with your continuing interests and which would gradually increase the contact you would have with our students and faculty — which is what we hope to gain! To the extent that you won the respect and friendship of our students you would have done them a major service, and I would hope this would be a continuing source of satisfaction to you.

 

      I do not feel we should be concerned on either side at this time about money. You know from your contact with our Founding Friends that Harvey Mudd College must attract support if the College continues to live and grow. But the out-of-pocket cost of this proposed arrangement to the College is minimal and will, I feel confident, be more than justified by your presence here. If the proposed arrangement proves not to be mutually happy we can agree to go our separate ways without obligation either way. If, in due course, you find areas in which you do wish to support the College financially we would be most grateful indeed, but we will not importune you. I do not propose this arrangement as a money raising venture, and we should not judge its success, should you be with us, on financial grounds.

 

      Please let me know your wishes. You are most welcome here.

 

Cordially,

/s/ Joseph B. Platt

President

JBP:feg

 

cc:  Mr. Spencer Heath

11 Waverly Place

New York, New York

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Dr. Joseph B. Platt

Harvey Mudd College

Claremont, California

September 9, 1960

 

Dear Dr. Platt:

 

I cannot easily tell you how pleased I am at receiving the invitation extended in your very kind, extremely well thought out and finely phrased letter of September second.

 

      The Harvey Mudd (and Joseph Platt) ideal of a sound cultural foundation at the base of training in the sciences, as the rational technologies of the natural world, and in the techniques of their human employment through the engineering arts is very exciting to me.

 

      If in the very attractive association that you propose I shall be able to contribute my little towards that aim, and to share with you and your associates some of the fine satisfactions of pursuing it, I shall be happy indeed.

 

      Regretfully, my return to California is being somewhat delayed, but I now expect to be at my address in Santa Ana by or before the middle of October and will get in touch with you immediately from there. As for my wishes, you have well anticipated them, as being in all respects substantially in accord with yours.

 

      With best compliments, and warmest best wishes also to Dr. Rae and to Dr. Little.

 

                               Cordially yours,

_____________________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Extract from carbon of letter to Joseph B. Platt,

President, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California

September 9, 1960

 

. . . The Harvey Mudd (and Joseph Platt) ideal of a sound cultural foundation at the base of training in the sciences, as the rational technologies of the natural world, and in the techniques of their human employment through the engineering arts is very exciting to me.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Note from (Miss) Edit Gaulding, Secretary to Dr. Platt, President, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, to Mrs. Frances Norton Manning, 312 Haleswortrh Street, Santa Ana, California, returning a letter to her dated February 24, 1961, from Spencer MacCallum, 1800 Shelby, Seattle 2, Washington.

March 3, 1961

 

Dear Mrs. Manning:

Mrs. Platt has asked that I return the enclosed to you.

Sincerely,

/s/ (Miss) Edith Gaulding

Secretary to Dr. Platt

_________________

 

February 24, 1961

Dear Mrs. Manning,

This is mainly to thank you for entertaining Popdaddy and me last week in and around Santa Ana. It was certainly a pleasant visit, and I was glad of the opportunity to have a good talk with Popdaddy again after so many months. He’s looking fine and enjoying his connection with Harvey Mudd very much. That’s exactly the kind of environment he has been talking about for years, and I am glad it has finally materialized. It’s surprising how much obligation he feels toward contributing to the life of the College in some way. He very nearly didn’t stay over the extra day that I could be in San Francisco because he felt remiss in staying away from the campus.

 It seemed to me, however, that he is not contri­buting to the college life in anything like the way he could. His potential is not being tapped. I de­tected some frustration about this; he is very much concerned lest he not justify Dr. Platt’s hospitality.

 On the train up to Palo Alto, I talked with him about the possibility of arranging some weekly talks at Harvey Mudd, something which would give him some regularity and a frame in which to work. Some possible titles I suggested and he seemed to take to were

What is Science?

What is Engineering?

What is Law?

What is Business?

What is Progress?

He felt he would enjoy very much handling any of these topics, and that they should be announced one or at most two at a time, considering his unofficial status at the college. Then if these found acceptance, one or two more could be announced, and so forth.  The announcements might be made in the student paper, and I think it would be well to hold the talks at the same place and time each week.

I’ve discussed this to this extent because as you know, while Popdaddy operates beautifully on such occasions and needs them to stimulate him to new ideas, he’s one of the world’s worst at initiating or arranging them. Knowing what we talked about, you might find yourself in a position to give him a hand at arranging something of this kind. But please don’t let it be a burden to you in any way.

 One thing I was especially interested in this trip was hearing Popdaddy evaluate the relative import­ance of his ideas about physics and his ideas about society and proprietary administration.  He regards the first, though they haven’t the practical application of the latter, as potentially being the more fundamental contribution to science and philosophy. He would be more proud of being remembered for his ideas in this field than for his ideas in the social field. With recognition of the principle of proprietary administration practically guaranteed by the trend of recent developments in real estate, I find myself impatient for him to crystallize some of his thinking about physics in written form, even though this is not my own field of personal interest.

 I can’t help him in the area of physics. (I think you know that I’m hoping his lectures on religion at Chapman College will result in good enough a transcript that I can help him work it into a book this summer.) But thinking around the subject, I came up in doodling fashion with the following ad:

WANTED:   Physicist and writer who is

willing to do pioneering thought — to

explore and write up in publishable form

an original hypothesis regarding the

ultimate nature of physical reality advanced

as a new basis for physical science.

 

This is just thinking out loud, since this is the direction Popdaddy’s chief interest is taking him now.

 Things are going along fine here in Seattle. School is progressing well and my thesis is a third written, with nothing but encouragement so far from my committee. Spring has definitely started, but the rain shows no sign of letting up yet.

 That was certainly a nice supper get-together you arranged with the Woods and Dr. Davis at the Greenbriar Inn. I enjoyed it very much, but was sorry to miss the chance to get to know Dr. Platt some, either that night or the next morning. I hope you explained to Dr. Platt the reason for our having to change our plans on Friday morn­ing so that we couldn’t keep our appointment in Los An­geles. Please give my regards to Dr. Platt when you see him again. I hope the celebration of Mrs. Platt’s birthday was a big success and they had fun with it.

  Oh — I didn’t tell you about our San Francisco trip and our visit with Dr. Harper and George Resch. Well, that will have to wait for another letter. I’ll just add that Popdaddy and I saw the redwood trees in Muir Woods, and he thought they were small compared with the ones you and he saw farther north. But it made a nice afternoon drive.

  With thanks again and every best wish,

                                     /s/ Spencer

____________________________________________________________________________
Spencer Heath Archive

Letter to Dr. Joseph B. Platt, President,

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California

April 1961

              

Dear Dr. Platt:

 

Please forgive my thoughtless intrusion upon you and your luncheon companion yesterday. Seeing you at first apparently alone it did not occur to me, as it should have, that your table companion might be with you by special invitation or appointment. Please overlook my awkward inadvertence.

 

      I am returning herewith your two books: Heisenberg’s Physics and Philosophy and Born’s Natural Philosophy of Cause and Change that you so kindly loaned to me. The Heisenberg book I am returning via a new copy because of my having “mutilated” the original with extensive marginal notes. I have spent much time with these two books, along with Reichenbach’s Atom and Cosmos and others covering much the same ground, and am happy to thank you.

 

      I have in mind your very kind letter of the seventh with its note of needs and will be glad to speak with you about it at some convenient time.

Sincerely yours,

 

_______________________________________________________________

Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3076

Letter to Heath at 312 Halesworth Street, Santa Ana, California, from Henry T. Mudd, 523 W. Sixth Street, Los Angeles 14, California

June 8, 1961

Dear Mr. Heath:

Dr. Platt has told me of your generous gift to Harvey Mudd College, and I want to express my personal appre­ciation to you for it.

As you know, our Founding Class Commencement was held last Monday and it was an important milestone in the progress of the college. Of the 32 graduates, 27 are going on to take graduate work elsewhere which is a gratifying percentage — but even more gratifying is the caliber of the freshman class which will be entering in September. The group is easily comparable with K.I.T.’s or Caltech’s entering class next year. I know you are familiar with the campus, so you know of the con­struction of our administration and classroom buildings, which will be ready for occupancy in September. Very probably we will be constructing a dining hall and student union during the coming school year. The college’s progress has really been far more than satisfactory, and I thank you for your interest and support which I hope will bring you pleasure. 

Sincerely,

/s/ H. T. Mudd

______________________________________________________________________________ Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1727

Penned text for speech of appreciation at the end of the academic year at Harvey Mudd College of Science & Engineering, Claremont, California, where Heath was a guest of President Joseph B. Platt for the year as (Dr. Platt’s term) “Octogenarian in Residence.”

June, 1961

 

The College year now coming to an end, it is good for me once more to express my gratitude to Dr. Platt for the privilege of residing among you for a time and making such friendly and perhaps helpful contacts as the circumstances and my own talents might bring about.

     If my being among you has been of any value or inspiration to others, as it has been to me, I can only wish that through closer contacts in your various activities it could have been a thousand-fold more.

     In the Department of Physics, however — which is to me the most fundamental of all the objective sciences — through the kindness, especially of Dr. Focke and Dr. Bell, I have learned much concerning the current research, and have been happy to provide means for the purchase of some particular apparatus shortly to be required and not otherwise provided for. My own belief in the importance of determining ultimate physical units makes me especially happy to do this.

     Beyond and in addition to Harvey Mudd College I have found the City of Claremont, with its five Associated Colleges, perhaps the most attractive environment I have ever enjoyed.

     Again my thanks to Dr. Platt for inviting me here.

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