Critical Points and Random Events That Shaped the Early Career of William A. Goddard III
- Creators
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Goddard, William A., III
Abstract
My grandparents all moved to Imperial Valley in the desert of southern California in the period 1905-1912. They came from Arkansas (William Andrew Goddard I; his father Peter was a Baptist minister, his mother Lucy Minor Goddard traced her relatives back through the revolutionary war), Colorado (Frances Thomas Goddard Whitsett; her father was half Comanche), Angelina County in east Texas ( Lias Austin Bright; one of his grandmothers was Cherokee), and Coushatta, Louisiana (Lula Gray Bright). Except for the Indian, their ancestors were from Germany, Holland, England, Scotland, and Ireland, arriving in the U.S. in the period from 1700 to 1840. My dad (born in Holtville, California in 1912) left school in 9th grade (his younger siblings were the first in his family to finish high school; none attended college). My mom (born in Calexico, California in 1918) graduated from high school, the only one in her family to do so [she went to college part time in her 50's (while working full time on the night shift at Pacific Telephone), getting a BA in English]. I was born in a small cabin behind the baseball stadium (on the wrong side of El Centro) on March 29, 1937. My dad made the wooden boxes used to ship lettuce, carrots, grapes, and cantaloupes. Consequently, we moved forth and back every year between Imperial Valley (El Centro) and the central (San Juaquin) valley of California [Delano, Mac Farland, Oildale (suburb of Bakersfield), Lodi, Firebaugh, and a few tiny towns that no longer exist]. We also lived once in Yuma, Arizona (the farthest east I had traveled until I had a Ph.D.) and several times in Coachella Valley (Indio, Thermal). We lived in a house trailer that was moved from trailer park to trailer park. Our only books were the bible and a Webster dictionary, but my mother took me to the library (most funded by Carnegie) nearly every Saturday to get books (I liked psychology).
Additional Information
© 2000 American Chemical Society. I dedicate this volume to the teacher (Paul Pietrokowsky) who most influenced my career, to the colleague (Sunney Chan) who most shaped my early evolution into a chemist, to my loving wife (Yvonne) and our four children (Bill, Suzy, Cece, and Lisa) who have tolerated my dedication and love of science, and to my research group (see List of Colleagues of William A. Goddard III) who have made the enormous progress for which I get too much credit. Listed are the graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduates, and colleagues that have actually written published papers with me. Section 1 lists those that received advanced degrees from Caltech while working with me. The ones whose graduate research was primarily with another faculty member have an asterisk next to the faculty member's name. Section 2 includes others that were postdoctoral fellows and undergraduates of visitors with me, while section 3 includes colleagues at Caltech and elsewhere who have collaborated with me on published papers. The time periods quoted are roughly those that led to published papers. I would like to thank those (particularly Rick Muller) who organized the surprise 60th birthday meeting at Caltech (which I did not learn about until about a week earlier) and those (particularly Emily Carter, Thom Dunning, and Ellen Stechel) that helped put together this issue. In addition, I would like to thank those that traveled far and near to join me in the celebration. This included Guanhua Chen (Hong Kong); Terumasa Yamasaki (Japan); Wilson Ho, Dick Messmer, Rich Friesner, and Bea Botch (New York); Fritz Schaefer (Georgia); Mo Li (Maryland); Don Tomalia (Michigan); Larry Harding (Illinois); Larry Yaffe, Thom Dunning, and Ray Bair (Washington State); Peter Armentrout (Utah); Barney Ellison and Sally Sullivan (Boulder); Tony Redondo, Art Voter and Jeff Hay (Los Alamos, NM); Steve Walch and Guanghua Gao (Northern California); Mike Bower, Seung Koo Shin, and Bill Palke (Santa Barbara).Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 121747
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230607-170343223
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2023-06-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-07Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Other Numbering System Name
- WAG
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 0434