Tour de Force

One of my most memorable experiences during my long association with the Gordon Research Conferences was in 1978 when I was chair of the board of trustees. Alex Cruickshank, who I had known for many years, was a warm, friendly gentleman, and I admired his able and personable leadership of the conferences. Alex arranged for conference meeting sites with a handshake rather than with paper contracts.

Alex telephoned me one day in January, reporting that a headmaster had called to report that his school was bailing out of its commitment, made several months earlier, to host a full schedule of conferences in the upcoming summer because it was too costly. Faced with this egregious breach of a firm agreement very late in the conference planning process, Alex swung into action. Within forty-eight hours of the headmaster’s phone call, Alex had arranged for alternative homes for all the conferences. Then he arranged a meeting for us with the headmaster.

On the appointed day at 9:00 a.m. we sat down with the business manager and the headmaster of the school, who began by complaining bitterly about what a losing proposition the conferences were for their school. Alex, without ever raising his voice or seeming piqued, began asking questions about the school’s finances. The headmaster deferred to his business manager for answers, whose replies were usually in effect, “I don’t remember, but I can look it up.” After each of these responses Alex then proceeded to answer his own question, and in the process presented an astonishing knowledge of the details of the school’s financial situation and dealings.

I do not know how he acquired all the information, but his performance was truly a tour de force. He made a convincing case that, far from suffering, the school enjoyed great financial benefit from the opportunity to host the Gordon Research Conferences. Close to noon, the headmaster penitently asked Alex whether he would be willing to have the school host the conferences after all. It was agreed, and the school remains a conference site today.

Alex had revealed a side of himself I did not know existed. That gentle exterior hid a tough, canny Yankee who was remarkably knowledgeable and resourceful. My respect for him took a quantum leap, and I came to understand more fully why the Gordon Research Conferences had become the premier international meetings for chemistry, biology, and physics.