Edward, Jr. Hutchings Oral History Interview

Interviewed by Rachel Prud’homme

Abstract

A wide-ranging interview in three sessions, May 1984, with Edward Hutchings, Jr., longtime director of Caltech publications and editor of Engineering & Science (now Caltech Magazine) from 1948 to 1979. He recalls his early years working for several magazines in New York City, including The Literary Digest, The New Yorker, Collier’s, Business Week, and Look.

He was recruited in 1948 by Charles Newton, assistant to President Lee A. DuBridge, to edit Engineering & Science, then primarily an alumni magazine; and he recalls the many improvements he initiated, such as running articles on the latest research in the various divisions, encouraging faculty and students to write for the magazine, and ensuring that the scientific material would be accessible to laymen. He comments on such leading contributors as DuBridge, Robert Sharp, Arie Haagen-Smit, Arthur Galston, Earnest Watson, and Elting Morison.

He joined the Division of the Humanities as lecturer in journalism in 1952 and taught this course until his retirement in 1987, focusing it on The California Tech, the student newspaper. Wide-ranging discussion of campus doings throughout his career, including the trials of Sidney Weinbaum and H. S. Tsien; the controversy surrounding Linus Pauling; the relative apathy of the student body (except for smog protests organized by student leader Joe Rhodes); the admission of women; the incursion of the social sciences into the humanities division. Contrasts the presidencies of DuBridge, Harold Brown, and Marvin (Murph) Goldberger. Various influential articles in E&S are discussed.

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Edward, Jr. Hutchings Oral History Interview, interviewed by Rachel Prud’homme, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, May 3, 1984, May 17, 1984, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Hutchings_E.