Thank You, Carl and Charlie

Two remarkable American scientists died this past week, Carl Djerassi and Charles Townes.  Djerassi is called “the father of the birth control pill.”  Townes invented the laser.  They both lived into their 90’s, both lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, both were renaissance men with interests far beyond their labs and inventions. 

Inspiring men. And lucky me, I actually knew them both a little bit.

Charles TownesI met Charlie Townes in church in the 80’s.  The odds of my befriending a Nobel Prize winning physicist are pretty small, but I never imagined I would meet one in church.  But Charlie was a deeply religious man as well as a brilliant scientist.   In 1951, in his 30’s, working hard as a scientist on how to focus light waves to form what was later called a laser, he had a sudden insight on how to do it, early one morning while sitting on a park bench waiting for a coffee shop to open.  He told this story often, and always compared that flash of insight to a religious revelation.  He went on to be a bold advocate for the need for science and religion to partner and trust and learn from each other.  Charlie later won the Templeton Prize, called the religious version of the Nobel Prize, making him the only person ever to win both awards.  Except, that is, for Mother Theresa.  Pretty good company.

Carl DjerassiI met Carl Djerassi a decade earlier, in the 70’s at Stanford, where I was studying women’s studies and religious studies, and he was teaching chemistry. Well, I heard him speak a few times, as part of my women’s studies classes, about the history of the birth control pill and its implications.  I was among the first generation of women that really benefited from the birth control pill, which Djerassi’s invention of synthetic progestin in 1951 made possible a decade later.  This gave me so many choices that women had never had before in all of history; an extended period of free sexual choices before marriage, some control over the timing of my career and when I had my children, and much later, treatment for menopausal complications, which had became life threatening.  Like millions of women, I owe Carl Djerassi my choices, my children, my life.

To Charlie Townes I owe my sight and that of my husband and father and the millions of people who have had laser eye surgery.  And all of us who have used laser printers, fiber optics, space exploration and a zillion other things I don’t quite understand.

I imagine they must have met, these two creative scientist living near San Francisco.  They were both politically active, working all their lives for progressive causes.  Djerassi was proud to be on Nixon’s enemies list, and Charles was a prominent advocate for nuclear disarmament.  

Paul KleeThey had both been child prodigies, graduating from college at 19, working long and hard in both industry and academia.  And both were generous men, sharing their prize money and profits from their work with causes they valued.  Charlie donated his Templeton money to the program at our church for the homeless men and women of our region.  Djerassi was an avid art collector, especially the work of Paul Klee, and donated his large collection of Klee’s work to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I still remember the time in the 80’s when I first walked into the new Museum building and discovered there was a Carl Djerassi gallery filled with Klee’s art.  I have loved Klee all my life, seen his work in NY and his native Switzerland, but never in California.  I did not know Djerassi owned so many. I remember practically shouting, “My two favorite things in life – Paul Klee and birth control – thanks Dr. Djerassi!”

Both men have such great American stories.  Djerassi’s is one of the many moving American immigrant/refuge stories.  Escaping as a 15 year old Jewish boy from Vienna, he arrived penniless in NY with his mother in 1937, wrote a desperate letter to then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt asking for help getting money for college (“I thought she was the queen of America”) which she amazingly answered, helped him get a scholarship and sent him on his way to success in chemistry.

Townes was a child of the South, where his family was active in civil rights.  1965, when he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, was the year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Charlis’s aunt in North Carolina knew Dr. King from her civil rights work, and told him, “When you get to Stockholm, look up my nephew Charlie, he’s getting one of those Nobels too.”  They became friends, until King was assassinated three years later.

Our denomination wanted to honor Charlie for his work on the laser and his work bridging science and religion.  In 2007 we invited him to our big national meeting and gave him the usual plaque and stage time and testimonial.  I was on the committee that helped plan it.  The honoring was part of a long evening celebration that was running late.  Charles and his wife were already in their 90’s (he died at 99.)  We finally were able to bring them on stage.  And then we let loose the final celebration – a laser light show that filled the huge sports arena where 10,000 of us were meeting.  Charles just smiled, and graciously thanked us.

No, Charles, no Carl – let us thank YOU.

Copyright © 2015 Deborah Streeter