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Trained as an English and science teacher, Herbert instead was attracted to theater, working as a stagehand. During World War II, he was a decorated bomber pilot. But after the war, he put his two loves together, education and theater, as "Mr. Wizard" on NBC TV, teaching children about science on his show Watch Mr. Wizard from 1951 to 1965. (The show was later reincarnated as Mr. Wizard's World by Nickelodeon from 1983 to 1990, bringing the concept to a new generation.) "Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country," said George Tressel, a former National Science Foundation director. "When I talk to scientists, they all say that Mr. Wizard taught them to think." In his half-hour show, Herbert would explain how clouds produced rain, what makes dough rise, how glue works -- all with the help of an in-studio child that the audience could identify with. By the mid-1950s there were about 5,000 Mr. Wizard Science Clubs with more than 100,000 members. "Everything on the show I learned by doing it," he said. "But even when things went wrong, we would always explain why." He died June 12 from multiple myeloma. He was 89.
From This is True for 10 June 2007
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