Rug Cleaner Sweeps Up Nobel Booby
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 15, 1987
LOS ANGELES, Thursday: Donald Cram's work with chemicals relates mainly to mixing rug shampoos for customers of his carpet-cleaning business.
On Tuesday morning, he picked up his telephone to learn that his work had won him the 1987 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
"Now I do a good job on carpets, but this seemed a little excessive," Mr Cram said.
The transatlantic call from Stockholm at 6.10 am was an embarrassing wrong number for the secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Mr Tord Ganelius, who was trying to reach Dr Donald J. Cram, 68, chemistry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who shared this year's award for his research into artificial molecules.
Because the professor's number was unlisted, the operator connected Mr Ganelius with the only Donald Cram in the listings, Donald O. Cram, 38, of Altadena, California.
"I figured it was a practical joke, but a real good one," the carpet cleaner said. I told him 'This is great', and he thought I meant the prize. I meant I thought the joke was great."
While Donald Cram the scientist celebrated at UCLA's chemistry department with colleagues, Donald Cram the carpet cleaner took the day off to tell his story.
Fielding phone calls in his office, he even managed to get a call in to the prize-winning chemist to apologise for stealing his thunder.
"That's okay," the professor replied. "I needed the extra sleep."
In Stockholm, a rueful Mr Ganelius recalled a history of Nobel Prize calls that went wrong.
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald
