1900‑1973
Doris DuBridge, wife of Caltech's former president, died on November 18 at Laguna Hills, California, after a long illness. She was 73.
Born Doris May Koht in Reinbeck, Iowa, she graduated in 1921 from Cornell College in Mount Vernon Ð a social sciences major with particular training in nutrition, sewing, and institutional management. It was at Cornell that she met and became engaged to Lee DuBridge; while he did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, she taught school. They were married in 1925.
The DuBridges were first at Caltech from 1926 to 1928. They returned to the Institute in 1946, and for the next 22 years Doris DuBridge's college training stood her in good stead. Generations of students and countless other men and women Ð about 2,500 a year Ð were her guests. All of them found their hostess gracious, friendly, interested in what interested them Ð and dedicated to Caltech. Of course, she manifested those characteristics in many other ways as well. For example, she expressed her concern for students Ð and their wives and children Ð by serving as a member of the board of the Caltech Service League for many years, and she spoke several times to groups of students' wives on how to ease the strains of helping to "put hubby through" college.
She called it earning their PHT. Mrs. DuBridge was also active in the community Ð as a member of the Pasadena Philharmonic Committee, the Women's Committee for the Pasadena Symphony Association, ARCS, the YWCA, and the San Marino PEO.
Her husband, a son, a daughter, and five grandchildren survive Mrs. DuBridge. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Doris DuBridge Memorial Fund at the California Institute of Technology.