Notes: desc John Moore B209  Borrego Springs Friday 12/24/1976
Having last seen John and Betty Moore in 1972 (<->Anza Borrego) we called them Monday evening to see if they would join us here for a day. And sure enough, they did, driving from Riverside to meet us at 1000.  His car was a bit higher strung than our rented Cutlass; we nevertheless left it about 1/2 way up Fish Creek and walked mostly in the wash approaching Sandstone Canyon.
Johnny was very positive about historical inquiry and about doing this with Harriet -- whom he recalled as a graduate student!
Some points about this mileu: Frances entered a highly competitive, contentious arena in the department. He was a bright young embryologist when he took his fellowship at Stanford [? how deferred from selective service for the fellowship {some minor physical disability may have sufficed}] and it was already settled that he would return as an instructor to teach zoo 1-2 (as it happened the V-12 pre-meds); but meantime he switched to Neurospora. He had also (mildly) antagonized Professor Barth by switching at the last minute to Pollister as his dissertation sponsor. Real reason not recorded: he told John it was because "Pollister had never had a good student!" (He and John are fellow grad students; the temperature relations expt. derived from some of John's observations; introspect the developmental index may be specious: [ . . . ] can be delayed while other maturational processes continue.)
When Francis returned to Columbia, the great lights (Dunn; Doby; even Barth) were not too thrilled about his turning biochemical - perhaps not even about his invading "genetics." [This, not the choice of organism, was the problem.  Later when John, perhaps also Francis recommended that I be sounded out about coming back to Columbia, Doby still thought microbial genetics was a "flash in the pan." {consider implications of this attitute as a dampener for Avery!}
[END PAGE ONE]
[BEGIN PAGE TWO]
[Paradox that it was Doby who brought Griffith to the attention of most geneticista via his comments in GATOOS.]
Francis was viewed as an energetic, aggressive investigator - perhaps almost too much so in competing for space etc.  (Biochemical work needs more.) - he was just in the wrong field. Research was the paradigm for promotion:  but it needed to be sparked by an offer elsewhere; and jobs were scarce. When Johnny was offered a tenure position at Hopkins he was able to negotiate a promotion for himself but only on the further condition (unthinkable!) that Francis also be elevated in a reasonable time.
Francis set up his own seminar series in the department.  (Doubtless the one I also talked at in Fall '45) - which had many, since-illustrious visitors."D and D never came, to Francis' great hurt!
Betty describes this as prima-dona complex.  When John became chairman he spent almost his full time trying to ameliorate the personal feuds and make the department members get along with one another as decent human beings.*
As to graduate students, it took John a while to focus in 1945-8; he thought later there were quite a few. During the war, graduate students were scarce; perhaps of lower quality.  They would tend to be preempted by the senior faculty; and in genetics in particular, D and D were better known, and had earlier access to them in the standard course sequence.  It would take sometime for Francis reputation to be established, to be an independent
*At Stanford only Pharmocology comes close to this level of interval disruption. An important subject for sociological inquiry: how much academic energy is wasted in such conflicts: what are the preconditions for effective cooperation. Is personality; leadership an adequate answer?
[END PAGE TWO]
[BEGIN PAGE THREE]
attractant. [all of which facilitated a niche for myself!]
I tried to press John on the question of how that atmosphere might have shaped Francis own research program; but did not get a clear focus on the affective-cognitive intersection. He just returned to the theme it was "difficult."
[I should have turned the question to John's own career, where he might be better informed! But he would probably have been too modest and self-deprecating to come through. But John is also plainly much more diplomatically sucessful than Francis].
He focussed [SIC] on Selig Hecht as a victim: "brilliant, Jewish, aggressive in research, fresh, resourceful at getting funds, and nervous but isolated at Pupin Hall. -- felt very  lowly.  John tried to mediate -- e.g. to persuade Schradre, with some difficulty, to hold faculty mtg. once at Pupin -- "brought tears to Hecht's eyes!". Entertained them royally {cookies, tea ...} when they did come over!
P.S. Francis continued to teach Zoo 101-102 because that was what he originally Hired for; who else could have done it!; he was too loyal to the department.
[The nabobs' attitudes may also have been conditioned by his being home-grown.  Wouldn't they inevitably have difficulty effacing their recollections of him as a grown student from their overall appreciation of him. Is this a verfiable principle, that deviance is least accepted in such circumstances.]
Note: a dozen cartons of Dept. records were deposited in Columbiana by J Moore in August 1962. In addition about 6 on the history of genetics were sent to Am. Phil. Soc.  L.C. Dunn's papers are also there! He does not known what was discarded.  [ . . . ]
[END PAGE THREE]
[END PAGE FOUR]
Cy Levinthal knows that many E B Wilson papers were in the "Wilson house" he used to rent at Woods Hole.  (These could be priceless for history of American Biology <1940).
[END PAGE FOUR]
[BEGIN PAGE FIVE]
12/24/76.
Ryan credited [Josh] with starting his work on reverse-mutations in bacteria.
(I may have discussed research programs with him as backups to recombinations and probably did look at meth --> meth + (cf Kohen and Harris); possibly an eye to meth+ to meth-.