Oral Histories

Donald H. McLaughlin was a mining geologist, manager, and professor at UC Berkeley and Harvard. McLaughlin was born in 1891 in San Francisco and attended various grammar schools and the Hearst Hacienda at Pleasanton. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in geology in 1914 and went on to receive his master's and PhD at Harvard in 1917. After he completed his education he enlisted in the Army and served as lieutenant with the 63rd Infantry until the end of WWI. Upon his return to the United States, he became a geologist for Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation and eventually became its president in 1944. He was also a consultant for the Homestake Mining Company from 1926 to 1944. McLaughlin served on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Board, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He was also a professor at Harvard (1925-41) and at UC Berkeley (1941-1943) as well as being a regent of the University of California from 1951 to 1966. In this interview, McLaughlin discusses his early education, trip to Europe, Hearst Hacienda at Pleasanton, mining geology study, UC Berkeley and Harvard, teaching, interest in architecture, building and planning, Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation and copper mining in Peru, earth movement and mineral deposits, the Homestake Mine, gold and the monetary system, the Atomic Energy Commission, uranium, and nuclear energy, consultancies in mining geology, National Science Board, and the U.S. Geological Survey.