A few weeks later, the Paulings were relaxing with friends at their Big Sur ranch when they were surprised by a knock on the door. It wasn’t often that anyone made it out to the isolated cabin on the coast. The caller was a forest ranger who said that he had taken a phone message from the Pauling’s daughter Linda, who asked him to fetch her parents to call her back. There was no phone at the Pauling’s cabin. Linus and Ava Helen, worried that some sort of family emergency had befallen, walked the mile up the hill to the ranger station. When they got Linda on the line, she asked, "Daddy, have you heard the news?" When he answered no, she said, "You’ve been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!"

It was a pleasant shock. There had been much talk about Kennedy receiving the Prize for his test-ban efforts, but Pauling was caught off-guard. A string of phone calls came into the ranger station from reporters and supporters, then the press began to arrive by car. For years Pauling had been snubbed, attacked, insulted, and investigated because of his peace efforts. Now he was being honored. Not only that, but Ava Helen reminded him that he was now the only person in history to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. He was jubilant by the time he arrived back in Pasadena, giving interview after interview, taking care each time to recognize the efforts of Bertrand Russell and the others in the international peace movement.