Sweet Obituary

The HEPL building, 58 years old, a Stanford baby boomer born in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II, a child prodigy that produced the world’s first full-scale linear accelerator when only a year old and won the Nobel Prize for physics at age 12, has passed on. Despite a certain gangly appearance, it was loved by its extended family of researchers for its utilitarian qualities. There were several causes for its passing (old and in the way, in essence), but the final blow was delivered by heavy-duty construction equipment.
—Stanford News, January 30, 2008

After 58 years on the frontiers of science, the HEPL building meets the bulldozer, making way for the next generation of research.

That obituary warms my heart.

Why would I care that a nondescript building was honored in its passing? Romance, of course. That’s where I met Andy a little over 60 years ago. I was a summer student after I graduated and he was working on his Ph.D. thesis. When I first saw him he was immersed in building the electronics for it, and he had a sign like this over his lab bench to remind him which way was up:

What could be more romantic than that?

So why was I searching the internet to find out what happened to the lab? We couldn’t find it on the map of the campus with all the new building since we were there, and I wondered what happened to it. Why think of it now? Because now Kaitlin is living a few minutes north and working a few minutes south of the campus. It’s bringing back old memories. I wouldn’t like to go back to those days, but I’m so glad I had them.

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19 Responses to Sweet Obituary

    • Catalyst says:

      And judging by Andy’s work on “the land”, he’s still looking “up”.

    • Jean says:

      Yes, he’s still looking up. 😀

      Actually I’m not spending as much time on old memories as I am finding pictures on the internet of the campus and trying to figure out where they were taken by looking at my google and campus maps. It’s good exercise for my poor old brain. I had an “Oh, duh! experience because one picture didn’t have Hoover Tower in it. It took me quite a while to figure out the picture was taken from the top of the tower. You could even see its shadow in the picture. That cracked me up.

      I was also thrilled to hear what happened to the old lab. I spend a lot more time exploring like this than I do on puzzles.

  1. tammyj says:

    and I’ve always heard that Standford is the Ivy League of the west!
    wonderful memories and happy times for you. 😀 xoxo

    • Jean says:

      Actually UC Berkeley was a great school too. It would have been my first preference because I loved the campus, but it would have meant a long commute by bus. In other words, no social life. When I got accepted to Stanford with a scholarship I jumped at the chance to live on campus. The prestige didn’t hurt either.

      I still don’t think it’s an attractive campus. 🙂

  2. love the obituary to a long standing member of society – a landmark for those who went past it or into it…

  3. Ann Thompson says:

    I always hate to see old buildings torn down. It would be even harder if one held such sweet memories.

  4. MadSnapper says:

    so glad you posted this, sorry the building is gone, but now I feel I know you and your f. amily even better. I really enjoyed this post a lot. and i am glad to ind out I am not the only one that can get lost in Google earth maps and when I LOOK UP find that hours have passed while I traveled and investigated. I once spent a couple of hours trying to find all the houses i have lived in. some are gone, never to be found except in memories. I love hearing your memories.

  5. Hootin' Anni says:

    This, Jean, was one of your best posts ever!!

  6. Myra G. says:

    What a novel idea, this obituary! My mind boggles to think of other (seemingly) ordinary candidates.
    Mostly, I loved hearing how you and Andy met. More, please?

  7. Rose says:

    I think there are several of us that enjoy Google maps and/or Google Earth. I can spend way, way too much time on them. Sometimes to find place I want to go, sometimes to visit places I will never go. I get on there and click ‘Little Man’ and travel the roads of all kinds of places–foreign and here at home.

    Like Sandra, I feel I know you a little better…and really enjoyed reading this.

  8. Catalyst says:

    BTW, speaking of Hoover Tower, my favorite uncle went to Stanford back in the early part of the last century and lived on an upper floor of Hoover’s house when he was also there. He related how he used to climb out of his window and steal apples from Hoover’s tree!

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