Seriously, a real king.
Not long ago I got a very big surprise via campus mail. Marilyn Hellums, the wife of Rice Chemical Engineering professor David Hellums, sent over some photos of Belgian King Baudouin touring Rice. (Here is an obituary from 1993 that includes a nice biographical sketch.) Although she seemed confident in her note that I must already have these pictures, she could not have been more wrong. I was completely flabbergasted. We keep lists of important visitors in the archives, but there is no record of this visit anywhere and I couldn’t find any mention of it in any Rice publication either. Although it’s hard to imagine, King Baudouin seems to have slipped in under the radar. That’s him in the light colored suit and sunglasses above, looking over at a pre-mustache David Hellums, who was shepherding him around campus. I don’t recognize anyone else here.
The king seems to have been interested especially in the artificial heart project that was ongoing at the time–these look like parts from one of the experiments. Based on the window hardware, they’re either in Lovett or the Mech Lab.
The pictures are undated, but I guessed that it must be 1969 or 1970 based on this photo of the King, Hellums, Carey Croneis and Frank Vandiver having coffee–this must have been taken during the period between the Masterson Crisis and the beginning of Norman Hackerman’s tenure.
State Department records confirm that King Baudoin was in the U.S. from May 17th through the 23rd in 1969, a visit that included a trip to Cape Kennedy to view the launch of Apollo 10. I find this entire episode–both the fact that it happened and the fact that there’s no record of it–powerfully interesting. If anyone knows anything else about it, please do get in touch.
Bonus: Lovett Hall window.
Melissa, I suggest that in the middle photo the person holding the heart pump is Bill Ackers. Bill was instrumental in its development. I wish I knew more.
Sandy … he doesn’t appear in that photo as I recall Bill Akers (no “c”) looking like. Here’s a Rice bio, with photo, that mentions Prof. Akers’ role in the heart-pump development: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~che/people/faculty/akers/akers.html .
The guy holding the pump is definitely Hellums. Just squint and imagine a handlebar mustache.
Those big glass ashtrays in the second picture. Reminds me of my mother. She had all kinds of ashtrays before my dad quit smoking. He wouldn’t use them because they were too nice.
I love those old ashtrays. Lots of heft.
I used to think there had been a king of Bhutan in my art classes in the mid-70s; he was known on campus simply as “Jigme,” which was how he signed all his drawings, and at the time he was understood by his classmates to be some kind of “prince of Tibet” whose mail arrived with return addresses referring simply to “the palace.” Wiki tells me, however, that the actual king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, was my classmate’s cousin, with a very similar name. Perhaps his mail did come from “the palace,” I don’t know.
The real king, when he was formally crowned on 2 June 1974, was the youngest monarch in the world at eighteen years of age.
King Baudouin was a friend of Michael DeBakey so it’s no surprise that part of the Rice visit included Ackers. During this visit King Baudouin visited the Med Center and NASA as well as Rice.
Here’s an account of how the Belgian Royal Family came to be acquainted with DeBakey: http://crossoflaeken.blogspot.com/2011/07/princess-lilian-cardiology-foundation.html
I don’t see Bill Akers in any of these pictures. But isn’t that Hardy Bourland in the bow tie at the left hand side of the back of the pack in the first picture? Hardy was in Bioengineering. Like Hellums, you have to imagine some changes like glasses and less dark hair.
Good eyes, Farrell. That is pretty clearly Hardy.
Can’t help with the King, but Prince Jigme Phunkhang of Sikkim was a student in the early 1970s and played on the soccer team.
There was a crown prince in Will Rice in the early 70′s. Lynn recalls having been told he was from Sikkim.