JOEL HILDEBRAND* DESCRIBED by HIMSELF Why Write about Myself? Friends have long urged me to write an autobiography. I have excused myself hitherto by saying that I am still having too much fun investigating the ways of nature to care to take out time to write about myself. I do not expect after my departure to be looking at the earth from some extraterrestrial observation point to check on whether proper respect is being paid to my memory. Furthermore, I have not been convinced that enough persons would be sufficiently interested in reading about me to make the task of writing about myself worthwhile. But my esteemed friend, Editor Ingle, assures me that there are, and he may be right. Two big city newspapers have confirmed his opinion. The San Francisco Chronicle published a half-page on "The U.C.'s Ageless Scholar," and the Oakland Tribune gave like space to a "Retired U.C. Chemistry Prof Going Strong at 90." I am neither a biologist nor an M.D., only an old physical chemist, but scores of biologists and M.D.'s write for certain of my reprints, and some may even be curious to learn about the fellow who wrote them. Ninetieth-birthday letters and events revealed that I have many more friends among former students and associates than I realized . The San Francisco Bay area chemists put on a Hildebrand Night; a guest lecture to a large audience of freshmen was greeted by prolonged applause; friends at the Faculty Club lunch table provided a cake, a candle, and four bottles of champagne; forty-five friends gathered from several countries for a Hildebrand Symposium; former students flooded me with birthday letters. Such outpouring of goodwill arouses a response in me altogether different from pride. Its nature is well stated in a poem by Carl A. Dragstedt published in these Perspectives in the 1971 Summer issue. I read it at the dinner * Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720. 88 I Joel Hildebrand · Joel Hildebrand that followed the Hildebrand Symposium on December 11, 1971. It concludes with these lines: Life's Prize Life's prize is not a big trophy That you can win in a game; It's something entirely different From wealth or power or fame. It's the look of respect and affection, That one can see in the eyes Of the folks who know all about you, That really is Life's great prize. During my long career I have done the things that I considered worthwhile, and I like to talk about them to any persons who feel for me any "respect" or "affection," so, here begins a "Perspective" on Joel Hildebrand. Forebears I selected my ancestors carefully. They were tough, healthy, industrious Pennsylvania Dutch, who immigrated before the Revolution from the upper Rhine valley. Great-great-grandfather Johannes Hildebrand was born in Zurich. I know of none who died before the age of eighty-three. The genes they transmitted to me produced a strong healthy body, still active at ninety. I have treated it with respect, not abusing it with drugs, tar, gluttony, or stasis. I have kept my blood flowing through the aorta too swiftly to permit globules of cholesterol to get a foothold on the wall and start a deposit. I stroked a varsity crew. I carried duffel bags and canoe over portages . My young wife and I hiked on trails in the Sierra Nevada, leading burros carrying duffel and children. I discovered skiing at forty and became sufficiently adept to manage the U.S. team at the 1936 Olympic Winter Games in Bavaria. At seventy-seven I swam a half-mile in twenty-two minutes; I used swim fins because a man of my intelligence should apply his power efficiently, not just churn the water. Another important result of the shuffling of my ancestral genes was a lively curiosity. I early became an avid reader and observer of nature. My outlook was like that of the youngster who said, "Sis, I have found out that there is no Santa Claus, and when I'm a little older I'm going to look into this stork business, too." Most...
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Mar 1, 1978
R L Zielhuis 
