140 Amazing People
Also in Paperback!
Start with the inventors: the same guy invented the computer hard drive and the video cassette, another guy vinyl — and bubble gum. And how about the brains behind the contact lens, the hovercraft, the Hawaiian shirt, even the guy who thought of putting a peanut inside an M&M?
And then there’s the artists — the creators of music and TV shows you love. Doctors who made radical breakthroughs to improve human life. Even a rocket scientist here and there, who helped humanity reach toward the stars. And, yes, an entertainer or two — the ones who spent their entire lives bringing us joy, only to die mostly forgotten.
The mainstream media tend to worship celebrities and sports figures, but the real heroes in life are often anonymous to the public. You’ve likely never heard of the doctor known as “the fastest man on Earth” — but you’ve probably seen his photo, working as his own test dummy, risking his life to learn how to make cars (and spacecraft) safer.
All those stories are in this book, plus more than a hundred more (140 total). The stories are fascinating: you won’t believe the cool people you have missed in your life. These are the people you wish you had known.
The Honorees
Included in this book:
- Booked actor Jack Lord
- Music teacher Shinichi Suzuki
- Writer Irene Kampen
- War correspondent Martha Gellhorn
- Chiclet inventor Louis Mahle
- Cartoon artist Antonio Prohias
- Comfortable chair designer Edwin John Shoemaker
- Bullet train developer Hideo Shima
- Racquetball inventor Joseph Sobek
- Race enthusiast Mary Fendrich Hulman
- Equal opportunity preacher Rev. Louis A. Saunders
- Classic TV creator Leslie Stevens
- Sensual author Dominique Aury
- Internal viewer Allan MacLeod Cormack
- Test pilot George Grundy Jr
- Anti-spam activist Jim Nitchals
- Sportsman Fernand Sastre
- Photojournalist Maurice Sorrell
- Hearing aid designer Aram Glorig
- “Dick and Jane” author A. Sterl Artley
- Rocket scientists Max Nowak, Heinrich Paetz and Albert Schuler
- Lassie’s dad Hugh Reilly
- Surgeon general LeRoy Edgar Burney
- Garage inventor Massena Gump
- Visionary Otto Wichterle
- Lyricist Marshall Barer
- Disease specialists Drs. Jonathan Mann and Mary Lou Clements-Mann
- “Sasha” the bartender Leonid Kinskey
- Tech designer Reynold B. Johnson
- Food preparer Marc Harrison
- Spokeswoman Toni House
- Real heel Roger Vivier
- Curmudgeonly author Cleveland Amory
- “Miss Marple” actor Joan Hickson
- Automotive designer Wilhelm Karmann
- “Batman” creator Bob Kane
- Tornado meteorologist Tetsuya Fujita
- Radio developer Elmer H. Wavering
- Autograph hound Mary A. Benjamin
- One-legged tap dancer Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates
- Master poet Ramchandra Narayanji Dwivedi
- “Betty Crocker” actress Adelaide Hawley Cumming
- Public health educator Dorothy Bird Nyswander
- Defibrillator inventor Paul M. Zoll
- French illustrator Raymond Peynet
- TV comedy writer Lucille Kallen
- Hawaii Five-O actor Herman Wedemeyer
- “Spanish Flea” composer Julius Wechter
- Composer and actor Bobby Troup
- Science novelist Thomas McMahon
- Nuclear scientist Glenn T. Seaborg
- “Smokey Bear” creator Harry Rossoll
- Violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin
- Color TV broadcast pioneer Walter D. Scott
- Civil rights enforcer Henry V. Graham
- Comic Gary Morton
- Photographer Sam Shaw
- “Wilma Flinstone” voice Jean Vander Pyl
- Ventriloquist Wenceslao Moreno
- Laser inventor Arthur Schawlow
- LA Police spokesman Daniel N. Cooke
- Comic artist Saul Steinberg
- Vinyl inventor Waldo Semon
- Hovercraft inventor Christopher Cockerell
- Bookstore magnate Christina Foyle
- Iditarod founder Joe Redington
- Last AP telegrapher Aubrey Keel
- Apollo moonwalker Charles Conrad Jr
- Smoking gun cancer researcher Ernst Wynder
- World record flyboy Ed Long
- Zulu music legend Simon Nkabinde
- First on-air TV weatherman Clint Youle
- Aeronautics researcher Robert Thomas Jones
- Memorial sculptor Frederick Hart
- Peanut M&M inventor Raymond Vernon
- Diplomat and inspiration Joan R. Braden
- Unmanned spaceprobe pioneer W. Eugene Giberson
- “Honeymooners” co-creator Harry Crane
- Forensic pathologist William Eckert
- Chicken pioneer Thomas O. Foster
- Mountaineer Paul Petzoldt
- ZIP Code inventor Frederick C. Belen
- Publicist Jim Moran
- Space engineer Jerry Olivieri
- Psychiatrist Nise da Silveira
- Gymnast Leon Stukelj
- Rocket sled speeder John Paul Stapp
- Game show host Gene Rayburn
- “The Shadow” voice John Archer
- Blues DJ Early Wright
- Celestial mathematician Juergen Moser
- London Fog raincoat designer Israel Myers
- Museum director Jeshajahu Weinberg
- Writer Nigel Tranter
- Disney animator Marc Davis
- Singer and composer Jester Hairston
- “Addams Family” creator David Levy
- Magical showman Doug Henning
- Inventor Karsten Solheim
- “Lone Ranger” announcer Bob Hite Sr
- Cartoonist Kariel Gardos
- Obstinate journalist V.K. Narasimhan
- Sidekick extraordinaire Durward Kirby
- Joyful sex author Alex Comfort
- Pioneering journalist June Anderson Almquist
- ASL linguist William Stokoe Jr
- Aeronautical engineer Richard S. Shevell
- “Mark Trail” model Charles N. Elliott
- Credit card developer William J. Boyle
- Hollywood stylist Michel Kazan
- Pioneering cosmonaut Yevgeny Khrunov
- Mambo king Tito Puente
- Hawaiian shirt designer Ellery J. Chun
- Etch-a-Sketch marketer William Casley Killgallon
- Open tennis promoter Philippe Chatrier
- “Hawkeye Pierce” model Keith Reemtsma
- Soviet critic Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski
- Holocaust documentarian Laurel Vlock
- Core curriculum developer Everett Needham Case
- Amateur linguist John Wilder Tukey
- Physicist Abraham Pais
- Italian freedom fighter Edgardo Sogno
- NASA research engineer Robert R. Gilruth
- Lava Lamp inventor Edward Craven Walker
- Blood bag inventor David Bellamy
- Dodger scout Clyde Sukeforth
- Health skeptic John H. Renner
- Alert security guard Frank Wills
- Cancer researcher Michael Smith
- Laser visionary Joseph Weber
- Far-sighted shopkeeper Nauzer Nowrojee
- Talk show creator Steve Allen
- IC pioneer Victor Grinich
- Newsman Robert Trout
- Network architect Michael Muuss
- Writing teacher Malcolm Bradbury
- Fireworks artisan Christopher Ross
- Comic actor Werner Klemperer
- Cue card inventor Barney McNulty
- Walkie-Talkie and pager inventor Al Gross