This last weekend Betty and I spent quite a bit of time at the movie theater because she and Mary Ann were about to leave for St. Petersburg, Russia for 10 days. We saw Young at Heart and The Visitor. Mary Ann won accommodations in St. Petersburg at the meeting of a music society here in La Jolla. One of the members has an apartment in the city with a car and driver, so they will get to use that. This is an unusual experience for me since I don’t remember my wife being away from me for this long within the last 30 years. Friends and family are filling in during their absence. I have two sons here who are taking up the slack for now. Maybe Betty and MA will bring me back a nesting doll.

The movie Young at Heart is a true story of an old timers musical group in New Hampshire by the same name. They sang and danced and traveled to prisons and other events trying to make especially old people feel good. The characters in the movie were the actual members of the group, so in a sense it was a documentary. There were lots of happy moments and some sad ones when people died. As far as I know, the group is still in existence.

The other film is what I call a lose-lose movie. The Visitor is about a college professor in Connecticut whose wife has died. He suddenly finds his apartment occupied by a family of Middle Eastern illegal aliens. This professor, since he had no other demands on his time, took an interest in helping them, eventually befriending the husband. One day while they were traveling on a subway in New York , the husband was arrested. No matter what anybody did to try to help, in the end the man was deported. This was not a true movie so I can’t see why they couldn’t arrange a happy ending. But that’s not the way it was done.

I have included some photos from the recent Heart of San Diego event. There are also some new photo slide shows for you to visit.

– Bob

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Last week I had the opportunity to visit the J. Craig Venter Institute, which is in temporary headquarters in the La Jolla Science Park. A large building is planned for the future on university land. I reminded Craig of my desire to participate in his research in any way I could — especially identifying genomes characteristic of the ocean and land, not necessarily human. He would like me to go out on his boat with him and his staff to participate in an actual ocean survey. His next scheduled trip starts in November and I might go along on the leg from San Diego to Ensenada. Equally interesting to me is to have Craig come with us on one of our trips to Catalina and have him show us how he does his ocean sampling. What I also think might be interesting is to make a systematic survey of ocean samples at various locations around Catalina to see how much diversity exists. I am a hands-on person, so I have been thinking of buying a microscope for the boat to help in the ocean sampling effort.

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This week I’m planning to spend Wednesday afternoon at the Venter Institute here in La Jolla. As you know, I am quite interested in Craig Venter’s genomics work, and the promise it holds for applications such as genome sequencing of mammals — including humans — and sequencing the genes of plant life and ocean organisms. It is my opinion that this area will eventually lead to a cornucopia of ideas for genetically improving human and mammal health, helping genetically improve plant life, and understanding what’s really going on in the oceans and waterways. I plan to spend as much of my time as I can finding a way to participate in this very important work, even if I’m just an enthusiastic observer.

This week, we will be posting a new slide show of photographs from the recent CONNECT event — please come back to take a look. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

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I spent the last week recovering from the trip to Washington. There were no major occurrences over this time — just routine. I’m still finishing off the first of the genomics books I’m reading. This book is titled Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters and it was written by Matt Ridley. The book is great because it does not enter into the subject in great detail, but it does cover all the important people involved and the roles that they played in the field. So it hits the middle ground in this area of research. If you’ve read any interesting books on this subject, I’d like to hear from you.

By the way, the FED is starting to put some of my presentations and other events onto YouTube. There’s one video on the web site right now — it is a question and answer with Gene Ray and me at UCSD last year. More videos will added to YouTube in the near future.

• Q&A with Gene Ray and me at UCSD (video at YouTube)
• Horatio Alger Award Ceremony photos

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We had the unusually good fortune of attending the 2008 Horatio Alger awards ceremony in Washington D.C., where I was presented with the award by Mike Yanney. Horatio Alger wrote stories about people who rose from “rags to riches,” starting off poor or disadvantaged and ending up as solid and successful members of society. Horatio Alger Association members Mike Yanney and Walter Scott were my sponsors. I met them in Omaha while visiting there in the past to attend meetings of the U.S. Defense Department SAG (Strategic Analysis Group) that I have been a part of for many years.

We left San Diego and arrived in Washington on Wednesday, April 2. On Thursday evening, April 3, the main event of the day was conducted in the Supreme Court chambers, where all the new members were personally presented with their Horatio Alger Association membership medallions by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. There were nine other award recipients. They included Joe Clark of Aviation Partners Boeing; Joe Moderow of UPS; Aulana Peters of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher; and H. Wayne Huizenga, who owns the Miami Dolphins football team. Each of the new members has been very successful in his or her chosen area. Afterwards, we went to the Inaugural Dinner at the Mellon Auditorium, where the National Capital Symphony Orchestra played with some great vocal support. Major General Howard Bromberg, commander of Fort Bliss and the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Center, was the featured speaker, and the program was focused on the scholarships given to members of the armed services by the Horatio Alger Association.

On Friday we had a morning meeting with the new Horatio Alger Scholars. This year, 108 high school boys and girls from across the country were selected to become Scholars. All of the Horatio Alger Scholars were awarded $20,000 scholarships as well as receiving Dell laptops. The scholars will be attending the college or university of their own choice with the help of their Horatio Alger scholarships. After the morning meeting, we went to the Diplomatic Rooms of the State Department, where all the Scholars and old and new members had lunch and heard presentations by the Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. The Horatio Alger award bust was presented to me at a spectacular event at DAR Constitution Hall Friday evening. Both Ed McMahon and Lou Dobbs emceed the event. After a short video biography of me, I was presented the award by Mike Yanney. This had a particularly significant impact on me because he and Walter Scott — both members of the Horatio Alger Association — had helped me with SAIC’s acquisition of Bellcore. I then gave my acceptance speech. Here is the text:

Thank you. I am honored to become a member of the Horatio Alger Association. It is especially gratifying to become part of a group that does so much to help our nation’s most deserving youth attain higher education. I look forward to serving as a mentor to the Horatio Alger Scholars. Mentorship plays a vital role in a quest for success. I think it is especially important to seek mentors if you do not have positive role models at home. My first mentor was a college professor. He made a positive difference in my life’s direction, and in the lives of many of my classmates. As a result I too wanted to have a positive impact on others. I accomplished that goal at SAIC, which I believe has made a significant and positive contribution to society. I am truly grateful to my family, my business partners, and my past employees for helping me make my dream a reality. To the young people here with us tonight, I’d like to share with you the fact that I am 83 years old and still participating in my education. I learn something new every day. For example, I decided to learn more about biology and genomics since they are going to play a significant role in our country’s future and maybe I can play a part in it. I have a lot to learn but I am challenged to do so — many people are helping me. It is my hope that you too will take your education seriously and never stop learning.

On Saturday morning we all attended a breakfast meeting where four of the 108 new Horatio Alger Scholars supported by the Association were singled out to present their backgrounds and take questions from the audience. One of the four — Charles Driscoll — was a particularly talented musician. He played the viola for us and he is planning to continue studying music at the University of Utah, where he has his scholarship. In the afternoon, Jim Russell and his wife — together with my son Jim and daughter Mary Ann — visited the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. The museum contained every imaginable full-scale airplane, simulator, and weapon — including torpedoes and rockets — from World War I to the recent past.

The week was memorable and will be unforgettable for all of us. A couple thousand people attended all the sessions, including quite a large number of SAIC employees. It was highly scripted by the Association, and I for one felt I had attended an Academy Awards event. I know that I didn’t get to this place in life all by myself. I would like to take time to thank my wife Betty and my family and SAIC employees and others who supported me over the years, who played important roles in my life, and who continue to do so today.

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By the way, I forgot to mention on my blog that there had been another event recently at which I was honored. This was the CONNECT organization’s Hall of Fame. CONNECT is a semi-unique organization closely associated with UCSD and the city of San Diego. Its purpose is to connect venture capitalists and other sources of money with those technology and life sciences entrepreneurs whose companies are in early or mid stages of growth. In San Diego, the CONNECT organization has been very effective in helping to incubate small companies, many of which have grown quite large. The organization itself is independent and self-supporting with many volunteers also contributing their efforts. As a part of the CONNECT ceremony on March 20, 2008, I was also honored with a California State Assembly Resolution drafted by the Honorable Joel Anderson of the 77th Assembly District marking the occasion.

In case you might be interested, there are some new videos available of my talks at the CONNECT/MIT Enterprise Forum and Carnegie Mellon University.

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