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Date: November 18, 1976

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Joshua Lederberg
Conversation with Murray Luck concerning E.L.T.

Murray came to see me about some Annual Reviews business, but I took
advantage of the opportunity to quizz him about Ed Tatum. Murray has been
at Stanford since 1926. He said that it was quite likely that he may still
have substantial correspondence and he would like to consult that before
trying to strain his memory. He did voluntarily remark that Ed had played
an important role in an embryonic biochemistry department here. And I
responded that this was one of the main things I wanted to check out with
him. He thought that Windsor Cutting was the central protagonist and that
I might ask Sid Raffel about the event and where those papers might be.

I tried to press him about the relationships of Taylor and Tresidder
which he began to recall after a bit but felt some delicacy about.
Evidently C.V. Taylor was chairman of a faculty committee that was set up to
recommend candidates to the trustees for the vacant presidency. Evidently
the trustees totally ignored those recommendations in choosing Tresidder
from their own group for the role. After that, according to Luck, Taylor made
very little effort to cooperate with the President and might be said to have
carried out his functions rather poorly. He concurred with the remark that
I heard from others that this was one of the main reasons that the department
fell apart at that time.

He thought that both Blinks and Van Niel were very close to Ed and I

said I would consult them about these matters. He will also search his own
correspondence.

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