Joining the CSHL Board and Lunching at Osterhout

[Bayard Clarkson]

The first time I met Jim [Watson] was at a Board of Trustees meeting at the Cold Spring Harbor Lab. It was early-1968.

Frank Horsfall, the Director of Sloan-Kettering Institute (SKI), had appointed me as Sloan's representative on the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Board, and this was my first meeting. The meeting was held in the so-called "fire room" next to the Bush lecture hall. About a dozen trustees attended the meeting which was chaired by Bentley Glass.

Jim was newly married and living in Osterhout. John Cairns was staying on as associate director and he was living in Airslie.

Airslie was pretty decrepit because nobody had enough money to fix it up. John Cairns and his family did the best they could, working on it themselves as there were no funds available for reconstruction.

Jim and Liz moved into Osterhout and that was where we had lunch.

It consisted of sandwiches and beer, which Liz would serve, unlike today with catered fancy luncheons. It was really very enjoyable and it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Watsons because it was a smaller group, very informal. It was a marvelous opportunity for me as a very junior member of the board to get to know some of the prominent scientists that Jim associated with and to watch the lab grow.