Arnold O. Beckman was quite the Caltech guy. He did so many important things for southern California and Caltech that the Laboratory of Chemical Synthesis just wasn't enough, so Caltech named the Beckman Auditorium for him, too. I had not heard of his company Beckman Coulter, but perhaps you are not the ignoramus I am.
Professor Beckman was born in 1900 and lived to be 104 years old. For that reason alone, his oral history ought to be pretty interesting.
UPDATE:
Thank you to Sid, who added this information:
"These are the arches by Alexander Stirling Calder that once adorned the front of Throop Hall, the first building on the campus."
You can find Sid Gally's history column regularly in the Pasadena Star-News. He is also a volunteer at the Pasadena Museum of History, where he probably knows the archives by heart.
