Gregory Farrington: This penguin can fly

It was pouring rain in Wales the day Gregory Farrington received the phone call asking him to take the helm as executive director of the California Academy of Sciences.

Farrington and his wife Jean had planned a yearlong trip through Europe, and he had recently completed his eight-year term as the 12th president of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., where he raised the bar for the quality of students, doubled the number of fully endowed faculty chairs and raised more than $250 million for the college.