Document GKkO2Qz3Q04LnKQk1a7n7ZOO7

May 16, 1960 Mr. W. W. Davison Vice President, Industrial Relations Department Standard Oil Company of California 225 Bush Street San Francisco 20, California Dear Mr. Davison: I write to you on the advice of Mr. A. J. McNay, with whom I talked briefly, some weeks ago, about the matter which I am bringing to your attention. This matter, to get to the point directly, is the need of The Kettering Laboratory to enlarge its facilities in space and equipment. For the past two years we have been engaged in a detailed examination of our present situation, and plans and specifications are now on the point of completion, whereby such space and equipment will be provided at an estimated cost of about one million, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($1,750,000.00). , . I have attached to this letter an account of the development of the Laboratory and of its activities as of September 1958 which is essentially up-to-date. It will acquaint you with the background of the Laboratory, its general policies, and something of its present status. I might add three points of some importance, by way of further explanation and emphasis. (1) It is our firm purpose to provide a trustworthy facility to which industrial organizations can come for advice, professional consultation, and services of research, in matters of industrial health and also relevant matters of public health that stem from industrial operations, such as the pollution of air and water with industrial wastes and the "adulteration1' or contamination of food supplies with, for example, additives, insecticides, weed killers, fungicides, plant and animal hormones, and the components of various food containers, (2) Along with these services, we have developed, and expect further to develop, facilities for the training of competent personnel in the field of industrial health - physicians to act as medical directors of industrial organizations and medical supervisors of industrial plants, as well as industrial hygiene engineers. We have trained some sixty persons of this type - mostly physicians, since we were better situated to do this first, and began admitting engineers only three years ago - most of whom are now occupying top-flight jobs in American industrial organizations. Three of our physicians and two engineers hold such positions on the West Coast. (3) We perform services for industry at cost (under suitable circumstances some of our people engage in professional consultations on their own time, without relation to specific problems in which the Laboratory, as an organization, is involved), in terms of the time devoted by members of the salaried staff to these tasks, plus all of the indirect or overhead Mr. W. W. Davison -2- May 16, 1960 expense associated therewith. As an agency of a tax free, municipal University, we cannot engage in profit making activities, and, therefore, cannot accumulate funds for capital expenditure. Accordingly, we have always gone to the sponsors of our work for funds to build and equip this Laboratory. This is the third and last (since space for building further will now be lacking, and since I shall reach retirement in the academic year 1963-64) expansion of our facilities in which I shall be involved. It is my purpose and expectation that we shall still be able to say that the entire activity has been sponsored and supported by American industry. This in my view is one of our greatest assets, and one of the finest examples of the interest of our industry in the health of its employees and that of the community which it serves. We expect to keep one foot in industry and one in the University, and to have no fear of the bias with which we may be accused, on the one hand, or of the possibly stultifying influence of the "ivy tower," on the other. Our present plant, which has cost about a million dollars and is now worth about a million and a half dollars, was provided by about a score of industrial organizations. These organizations, in the main, continue to come to us for the services we can provide. We undertake to be equipped to deal with any problem of industrial health, large or small, by means:of effective equipment and competent personnel. At least another 3Core of major companies have put some of their problems in our hands in recent years. Your own California Research Corporation has brought several such problems to us, and we are now engaged on their behalf in certain items of work. They can speak for themselves on the quality of the service and on the likelihood of their resorting again to us for help. Your Company has provided no funds thus far toward the development of the Laboratory. Whether or not it will wish to do so will depend upon factors which are not within my province even to mention. I invite you and your associates to consider, however, whether they may wish to avail themselves of our services in the future, or to share in any of the benefits of research and professional training which flow from our efforts. If they so anticipate it may appear to be appropriate to make some investment in our plant. I speak of this as investment, because in my view, facilities of this type, in greater abundance and proficiency, are urgently needed in this country. Others are being and will be provided, I have no doubt, and your Company may well feel that its obligations in that direction, as well as its advantages, may better be cultivated closer to home. I would not argue against the latter point, for I am concerned about the need for developments of this kind in other universities and specifically on the West Coast. However, I am thinking primarily of the contributions that have been made by this Laboratory and of the experience and know-how which make it the best source in the country of certain types of advice and help to Industry. (I am being either boastful or only honest in making this statement. Some of your people can give you some clue to its truth or falsity.) I believe we are moving in the right direction, despite the difficulties and complications of modern industrial life, and I hope we shall be able to continue. Our plans are based on acquiring from industry what we need to do the work that lies immediately at our door, rather than sometime in the distant and unpredictable future. Mr. W. W. Davison -3 May 16. 1960 The plans and specification will provide us with approximately 48,000 square feet of space, at an approximate cost for the space and mechanical services, of about $33.00 per square foot. Another $120,000.00 will be required to connect up with the present building, to provide our share of the cost of augmenting the distribution of power, heat, and water, to improve parking facilities, and to supply the minimum of equipment required to utilize the space. This, admittedly is an expensive facility, but the requirements set by climatic conditions for the conduct of long term animal experimentation give us little choice except that based on experience., This is, perhaps, an unduly elaborate letter. However, 1 wish to present the situation fairly and fully. We have no fancy or sleek brochures to describe our effort, choosing rather to rest our case on our produbts - reports, publications, graduates and services - a n d our purposes. In making up the composite sum required to see us through our present plans, I have listed our sponsors and have set beside their names certain sums that have now been made available, and certain others which might seem to me to be appropriate, or at least, not unreasonable. The sums vary from $200,000.00 (now agreed upon) downward, and some forty odd companies are listed. It would be presumptuous on my part to make any suggestion to you at this time, and 1 mention these details onJ.y to present the facts to you as fully as I can. I shall appreciate any consideration that may be given to this by your Company, and I shall be glad also to answer, as well as I can, any questions you may wi3h to raise. Cordially yours, RAK:ss Robert A. Kehoe, M. D.