David Boggs Ethernet engineer

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Princeton in 1972, Boggs joined Xerox’s brand new research division, PARC — the Palo Alto Research Center in California. He found another new hire, Robert Metcalfe, in a lab trying to figure out how to send data packets down a wire. Boggs, who had a ham … Read more

From This is True for 27 February 2022

Gail Halvorsen Pilot

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Halvorsen wanted to fly, and earned his pilot’s license in 1941, and joined the Civil Air Patrol. With World War II raging, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942, and was assigned to transport operations in the South Atlantic. When the Berlin Airlift (“Operation Vittles”) was begun … Read more

From This is True for 20 February 2022

Douglas Trumbull Special effects wizard

Growing up in Los Angeles — and being the son of Donald Trumbull, who created visual effects for The Wizard of Oz in 1939 — Trumbull seemed to be a natural for Hollywood, but he wanted to be an architect. Part of that was learning to be an illustrator …which led to a job with Graphic Films, … Read more

From This is True for 13 February 2022

Mel Mermelstein Testifier

A businessman, Mermelstein made wooden shipping pallets. But he was known briefly as a public figure starting in 1979 when he forced an issue that he was told to instead “leave it alone.” Mermelstein was the sole survivor in his family of the Holocaust. Someone taunted him that it was a lie, that Jews’ World … Read more

From This is True for 6 February 2022