Skip to main content.

Archives, History & Records Office

| Archives, History & Records Office |

Last Updated: 08/26/2020

Hours: By appointment Monday-Friday during regular work hours.


Contact:

Archives E-mail: slacarc[@]slac.stanford.edu
RM E-mail: recordsmgt[@]slac.stanford.edu
Phone: (650)926-3091
Post: SLAC Archives and History Office, M/S 82, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

Office Location: Bldg.50, Rm.122

Dick Taylor Story



I have a very vivid memory of Dick albeit I did not know him too closely, but we met several times the first time when he was a visitor at DESY while I was still a graduate student. It was always a great pleasure discussing with him and getting a smell of his wit and far reaching views on anything even beyond science.

From 1982 to 1985 then I was postdoc at SLAC as a Lynen Fellow of the German Alexander von Humboldt foundation with Stan Wojcicki being the host. I joined the Mark III experiment at SPEAR and Dick was the research director at the time.

When my fellowship came to an end I was offered a staff position at SLAC with Mark II at SLC. Then it came to the unavoidable salary question and I had an appointment with Dick in his office. I was seated opposite to him as he was sitting in an easy chair in very relaxed "Dick" style.

Dick explained very frankly to me that the rules for salary negotiations were much determined by the number of years after the PhD. Having had already calculated with my family how cost-intensive living in the bay area might be in the future, I tried to argue that a friend of mine at SLAC had a higher salary than the one offered to me, although he had the same scientific "age." Dick's blunt reply was: "Oh, he is with the accelerator, that's no fun."

Needless to say that he violated the "rules" a bit the next day, charming as he was.

Norbert Wermes

Back