By Eric Tollestrup, August 14, 2020
To those who have met and known my father, I do not think I would be too biased in stating that he led a uniquely remarkable life. It was a life that was certainly defined by his passion for physics, and as such it is hard to separate Alvin Tollestrup the physicist from Alvin Tollestrup the man and father because his scientific pursuits loomed so large. So it is in this context that I viewed, through the rose-colored glasses of a son, a remarkable adventure unroll, like a movie, onto the landscape of our lives and how it made an indelible imprint on us all.
For me, this movie begins with the Caltech years. It was such a wonderful childhood of exploration and adventure in all sorts of ways. And a big piece of it was intimately connected to the Caltech Physics community. Who could not be impressed by visiting the Synchrotron late one night as my father attended to some crises and sitting in the lab next to main door of the Synchrotron Building and listening to the characteristic, rhythmic but soothing sounds of the Synchrotron going “zing, zing, zing” while in operation. And then there were the frequent trips to the Army Surplus Store near Caltech to scrounge for some obscure vacuum tube or such. I often wondered if many of the HEP experiments of that time only succeeded because of those obscure surplus parts. And there were so many more adventures, from learning machine shop skills in the HEP Machine Shop, to the summer Physics Picnic in the National Forest, to the weekend parties where some of the greats minds of physics at the time would play bongos in our living room or attempted to play croquet on the lawn after a few too many beers. So physics loomed large even in those early years.
Next were the Brookhaven years. Again what fun we had as kids each summer on Long Island, the New York World Fair, learning to sail, the road trips to New England and DC, the clam bakes, and just hanging day after day at the beach. All the while physics cast a large presence since we hung out with, and dated in some cases, many of the HEP family kids who were also at BNL. We were constantly exposed to so many visiting scientists from around the country and, in fact, the world.
It was during this period that I can remember vividly my sister stating, despite my father’s frequent and vigorous urgings that physics was the only “true science”, that she would not, “touch physics with a 10-foot pole” I too, being so young and impressionable, adopted my older sister’s attitude, not because physics is not a true science, but rather because I recognized early on that my father projected such a large presence in the world of physics. So I resolved to do something completely different with my life. After multiple trips to Mt Wilson, Mt Palomar, and JPL I fell in love with astronomy. No physics for me, sir! What a silly boy I was, because once again, physics in this family loomed large. And as most know, astronomy these days is simply just astrophysics, a sub-branch of physics — oops!
Enter the transition years between Caltech and Fermilab years. I had ventured off to college and I learned my mistake about the true nature of astronomy, but like my father I fell in love with physics. And it was during this time, as my father spent more and more time at Fermilab, that I began to really understand the beauty of this great quest of his to unveil the great mysteries of the sub-atomic world. So yet again, physics loomed large as I began to understand what drove my dad and why he thought physics played such a central role in science.
Which brings us to the Fermi Lab years. I have so many great memories of the early years of the Lab, especially with watching my dad develop and build the superconducting magnets, in getting the CDF Collaboration up and going, and in meeting all those fascinating people, from DOE officials to new students and from scientists to artists, that comprise the fabulous Fermilab community. Who could forget the warm introduction to the Fermilab community that my wife Karen received while pounding rice with the Japanese collaborators, attending the art shows in the high rise atrium, feasting and drinking the night away at numerous impromptu Lab dinner parties, or, as some of my most cherished times, just having those private moments with my dad as he showed me and my daughter Sara, with such pride, the latest improvements at the lab. It was a time when you could feel the excitement and the urgency to grab that golden brass ring called the top quark — it oozed intrigue and represente d an epic journey for all to follow. And along the way I was amused to watch first-hand as my dad first met and courted his future wife Janine whom we had just first met together at the Fermilab New Years Party. I was beaming with pride as I sat in the audience at the White House watching my dad receive the Medal of Technology from President Bush, and elated to share in the hard fought, but duly deserved, successes when he told me that the Top Quark was finally detected by Fermilab. Again, physics loomed large.
Although this movie is far from the trailing credits, I will end here and just mention that there is a certain irony to this tale. I started out wanting to follow my older sister’s advice by doing something different from my father’s quest, despite harboring a long-held secret desire and longing to have actually participated in this same grand adventure with him. So as he went deeper inward into matter and I went further outward to the stars, we have, in essence, reach a common quest: going to higher energies is inevitably steering the HEP community towards the cosmic Big Bang, while reaching for the furthest celestial objects in the sky steers me to understand the very same cosmic event. Our quests, in the end, have merged; who would have thought?
Indeed, physics looms large in the life of Alvin, my father, and to all who he has touched. He left his imprint on us in so many special ways, and for that we have been so richly blessed. Dad, we miss you and love you, Eric.