Triple Graduate Grows Legacy of Support

Richard Blish (BS '63, MS '64, PhD '67) has given to the Caltech Fund for more than 40 years in recognition of an education that instilled self-confidence to solve challenging problems.

Reflecting on his time at Caltech, three-time alumnus Richard Blish is most proud of studying under three Nobel laureates: theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, nuclear physicist William Fowler, and the discoverer of the positron, physicist Carl Anderson.

"Carl Anderson taught a really neat course on celestial mechanics to seniors," Blish says. "Willie Fowler was my undergraduate advisor. I met him about five years before he won the Nobel Prize, and he was just a down-to-earth, solid citizen who could give you valuable direction. I was amazed to discover Fowler's paper in Physical Review A about nuclear synthesis in stars."

Blish also recalls that on Tuesdays at 11 o'clock, Feynman would appear in the largest physics conference room and answer any questions the students wanted to ask.

"The questions were often about configurations that looked like perpetual motion machines. Feynman would analyze the configurations orally and explain where the apparent energy source was," says Blish. "The following year, in the freshman lectures he collaborated on with Robert Leighton, Feynman knit together all the different theories of physics to show how they were part of a single mosaic. He could explain how the pieces fit together better than anybody I ever met. He's my hero still to this day."

Blish is now among the Caltech Fund's leading donors, called Catalysts, who contribute to the Institute's areas of greatest need including scholarships, fellowships, and research opportunities. "I was the beneficiary of support and got a lot out of it through my whole career," says Blish of his time at the Institute. "I wanted others to be able to have the same experience."

Catching the Wave

In his first year, Blish did better in chemistry than in any other subject, but along with 40% of his class, he chose the physics option. He recalls that junior-level physics included Maxwell's equations. "That just about killed me," he says. "That's the point where I decided to transfer to materials science as a graduate student."

To supplement his scholarship, Blish had been working part-time supporting experiments in the materials science department, and this familiarity with the work facilitated his shift in degree focus. As a graduate student, he studied under David Wood and Thad Vreeland, Jr., whom he considered a great friend. Vreeland taught at Caltech for more than 35 years and retired in 1991 as emeritus professor of materials science.

After graduating, Blish was determined to do leading-edge research. Following a short stint at Bell Labs, he moved to Signetics as an analytical chemist, where he was pleased to return to the subject in which he had excelled as a freshman. Over a 45-year career in the semiconductor industry, he spent significant time at Intel, as well as Spansion and AMD.

Only in hindsight did Blish realize that he had "caught the wave perfectly" by moving into the semiconductor industry during an exciting period of growth. He recalls meetings with many big names in the field, including then-CEO Andy Grove as well as Intel co-founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.

Moore, a Caltech alumnus who would go on to serve as Board Chair and be one of the Institute's most transformational supporters, was a very friendly guy who would come and sit with regular employees in the cafeteria, according to Blish. He could also make the big calls necessary to lead an organization that was growing rapidly. Blish recalls a meeting in Moore's office where two teams were pitching their approach to solving a digital equipment issue. Moore quizzed both sides to determine which approach was better both for the short and long-term. While the company was now big enough to develop both approaches, Moore said it stuck in his craw to leave the customer to decide which option to choose, so he made his call and the teams went to work.

A Science Tradition

Blish encouraged his children's interest in science, albeit that their paths didn't end up in the physical sciences. In 1981, he bought his son, William, an IBM personal computer. Taking to it quickly, a 14-year-old William developed a business making computer programs for realtors. The interest stuck and he has stayed in the software industry ever since.

When his daughter, Catherine, was about 10, Blish asked what she wanted to do when she grew up. She said she wanted to be a nurse, and he replied, "Why don't you be a doctor?"

"Boy, did that pay off," he says. "She's a double doc."

After completing the MD-PhD program at the University of Washington, Catherine is now a translational immunologist and chaired professor at Stanford University.

Blish's interest in science has not dimmed in his retirement. He and his wife, Marian, enjoy keeping up with Caltech virtual events and videos. Blish has also volunteered at a local high school, teaching AP Physics.

Instilling Self-Confidence

Blish notes that a number of brilliant scientists he met over the course of his career weren't as well rounded in their skills. In that context, he now appreciates aspects of his freshman curriculum that he had at first dismissed in importance.

"One of them was mechanical drawing—pre-Autodesk—which enabled me to tell a machinist how to make parts that I needed," he says. "The second one was English and history. I had really weak verbal skills as a freshman, but by the time I got my degree I was at parity with, or above, other engineers. As a result, I was the chief writer for about 60 peer-reviewed papers and 60 patents."

Beyond the inspiration of learning from great minds, he believes an unwritten rule he felt at the Institute was that students could solve any problem put before them. According to Blish, the teaching quality was so excellent he can still name about 70% of his professors.

"The Caltech experience gives you the self-confidence to accept assignments that you might think you can't do," he says. "Throughout my whole career, there were things I had to learn along the way. Caltech prepared me for that."