In October 1954, Albert Einstein was asked by the editor of The Reporter to comment on the hostile treatment many American scientists and intellectuals received during the McCarthy era. Einstein replied:

“If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make a living, I would try not to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under the present circumstances.”

Soon after this was published, Einstein received a flood of replies, many from plumbers. The following is one of them:

STANLEY PLUMBING & HEATING CO.

November 11, 1954

Dr. Albert Einstein
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey

Dear Dr. Einstein:

As a plumber I am very much interested in your comment made in the letter being published in the Reporter Magazine. Since my ambition has always been to be a scholar and yours seems to be a plumber, I suggest that as a team we would be tremendously successful. We can then be possessed of both knowledge and independence.

I am ready to change the name of my firm to read: Einstein and Stanley Plumbing Co.

Respectfully yours,
R. Stanley Murray

(Source: Letters of Note)