January 25, 1952

Mr. Henry Allen Moe

John Simon Guggenhiem Memorial Foundation

551 Fifth Avenue

New York 17, N.Y.

Dear Henry:

I am sorry to bother you at this moment, but I would be grateful to you for a word of advice on the following matter. I remember that you have helped in setting up some non-profit foundations, which is the matter which interests me now.

A friend of mine is interested in using his money for the assistance of young men who will become outstanding. He has in the past helped young men to attend medical school, and he has been rather dissatisfied with the results - the men all have turned out to be prosperous practitioners.

In talking with him, I have said that I think that the Harvard Society of Fellows has been about as successful as any group that I know about (I have also mentioned the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to him). He seems to be interested in the idea of setting up a Society of Fellows, perhaps at the California Institute of Technology. However, I think that he is not very sympathetic to some of the members of our Board of Trustees; and, although I have not discussed this matter with him, he may object to turning the money over to the California Institute of Technology it-self.

Do you think that a scheme might be worked out under which the Society of Fellows, probably not called the California Institute of Technology Society of Follows, could be set up as an independent foundation? The Harvard Society of Fellows was patterned to some extent after the Fellowship of Trinity College of Cambridge. Trinity College is, of course, an independent foundation; and, although the Harvard Society of Fellows is under the control of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, I think that its founders had in mind that it would be something like Trinity College, in its relation to the University, aside, of course, from the preparation of students for their university examinations that Trinity College carries out. Do you think that there are serious objections to a plan that I

Mr. Moe 1/25/52

might propose to my friend, that he set up an independent foundation, that might be tied in, in a friendly way, to the California Institute of Technology, the Mount Wilson Observatory, and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery? I would suppose that the Foundation would, in the course of time at any rate, have its own house in Pasadena; that it would consist of several Senior Follows, in the main stuff members of the three institutions (perhaps with some exceptions), who would also be the trustees of the Foundation, in the way that the Fellows of an Oxford or Cambridge college are the trustees of the Foundation of the College, and that younger men would receive appointments, for a first three-year term, and perhaps a second terra, with stipends of the order of the best present post-doctorate fellowships. These men, after appointment, would be free essentially to carry on their work in the way that they thought beat - they might be, and usually presumably would be, associated with one of the three Pasadena institutions, or they might hold the fellowships elsewhere. Some of then might, in fact, be graduate students working for the doctor's degree. The emphasis in their selection would be on extraordinary quality, in the same way as in the Harvard Society of Follows.

I estimate that about three million dollars of endowment would be available ultimately, with about one million dollars available at once. An income of about $40,000 would, I think, permit the immediate appointment of a half dozen junior fellows, or perhaps eight, and the number would ultimately be tripled.

I would be grateful to you if you would send as a statement about ideas that occur to you immediately, in order that I might have the benefit of them when I next talk with my friend (Mr. Bantrell), on February 7. If plans develop in a satisfactory way, I shall hope to ask you for further advice later on. I am especially interested to have your opinion in general about my suggestion.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W