Meyer W. Weisgal Honored on 75th Birthday, Retirement As Weizmann Institute Head

President Richard M. Nixon led a host of dignitaries in tribute to the Weizmann Institute of Science which marked its 25th anniversary at an international tribute dinner here last night at the Americana Hotel. The function was a tribute to Meyer W.Weisgal to mark his 75th birthday and his retirement as president of the Rehovoth Institute.

Guests at the dinner contributed more than $1 million to the Institute and a group of Mr. Weisgal’s close associates announced establishment of a $250,000 fund for a professional chair at the Institute bearing Mr. Weisgal’s name. Seventy-five persons contributed $2,500 each to establish 75 Weisgal scholarships at the Institute’s Feinberg Graduate School.

In a message read to the dinner guests by Dr. Dewey W. Stone, chairman of the American committee of the Weizmann Institute, President Nixon described the Institute as “a worthy memorial” to the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann and said that “lifting men’s hearts and minds to an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge and of wisdom, you have speeded the pace of progress and constructive development.”

Sen. Edmund J. Muskie of Maine, principal speaker at the dinner, described Israel as “a dream come true and a challenge to all those who believe in freedom and the rights of man.” He declared that Israel “deserves our continuing support in the preservation of its freedom and independence.”

In introducing Mr. Weisgal, Dr. Stone described him as “a volcanic, imaginative genius whose refusal to recognize any obstacle as insurmountable built the Institute.” Mr. Weisgal. who was presented with New York City’s Cultural Award, declared that during its 25 years of existence, the Weizmann Institute has “reached what is perhaps the highest possible plateau any institution of higher learning can hope to achieve in so short a time.”