July 15, 2017
At the Inauguration, Chancellor Henry T. Yang presented Charlie Munger with the Santa Barbara Medal, the highest honor UCSB bestows on a friend of the University, which was inscribed with the following message:
At the Inauguration, Chancellor Henry T. Yang presented Charlie Munger with the Santa Barbara Medal, the highest honor UCSB bestows on a friend of the University, which was inscribed with the following message:
Charles T. Munger
With heartfelt gratitude for your vision, creativity, generosity,
and gift of time that will forever impact physics and our university
When given the Santa Barbara Medal, Charlie said:
“Thank you very much. That’s what I need is a medal. Really, the real pleasure here is not getting the medals, it’s working with good people. It is absolutely one of the main privileges of life to work together with good people, and you bond in a way that won’t occur in ordinary social life.
If you want a great life, you’ve got to collaborate on something difficult with other good people. It’s a simple rule. When you get an opportunity to do it, it’s not a minor opportunity; it’s what life is all about.
Thank you Henry.”
In his concluding remarks, Lars Bildsten said:
“I would like to close with the best compliment I have heard from one of our visiting scholars (all of whom rave about the new Residence!) as they were telling me how much they enjoyed staying at the Residence, they slipped up and referred to it as going home.
Indeed our KITP visiting scholars feel that this place is not just a home away from home, but that the Munger Residence is their home, which is exactly what we had hoped for, so thank you again Charlie!”