A medical doctor, Scott had wide interests: he interned in surgery, and then narrowed that concentration to neurosurgery. But that wasn’t it either: he went on to do another residency in ophthalmology, finishing in 1961, when he was immediately hired as a Senior Scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, where he also served as … Read more
From This is True for 26 December 2021
Born in Poland, Orenstein had a little problem with the Nazis: he was Jewish, and survived multiple concentration camps during World War II, including Budzyn, Majdanek, Plaszow, and Ravensbruck, surviving by claiming to have a science background. After the war he moved to the United States, where he lived with an uncle. Seeing a doll … Read more
From This is True for 19 December 2021
Born in Canada, in 1963 Trombley and her husband moved to Windsor, Ont., where she got a job as a receptionist at CKLW-AM radio, which was just beginning its “glory years” after dumping its variety programming and focusing on contemporary hits. The station had a huge audience south of the border, especially in Cleveland, Ohio, … Read more
From This is True for 5 December 2021
Born in Pennsylvania just as the Depression was starting, the Last family struggled to make a living. At 16, Jay Last hitchhiked to California to pick fruit for the summer; he carried a letter from his hometown police chief testifying the boy had not run away from home, and had his parents’ permission. He was … Read more
From This is True for 28 November 2021
A pilot, Olson flew helicopters for the U.S. Army for four years, and then moved to the U.S. Air Force, flying A-10 “Warthog” jets, and continued that work in the Air National Guard. In all he spent 32 years in the military, and held the record for the most hours flown in an A-10 aircraft. … Read more
From This is True for 21 November 2021
A jazz musician, Chapman started his career as a guitarist, and developed an unusual playing style: he “tapped” the strings, rather than plucking or strumming them. He worked on his own instruments, and got the idea to not just hang the instrument vertically in front of his shoulder, which gave him “free hands” to play, … Read more
From This is True for 8 November 2021
Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), Rosenberg was expelled from high school in 1940 because he was a Jew. He had already lost contact with his family, so he decided to flee alone to France — by bicycle and foot to Paris. But that city fell to Germany, so he went to Toulouse. In a … Read more
From This is True for 31 October 2021
Born in Pinner, Middlesex — now a London suburb — Bricusse acted while in college, but excelled in music. He put the two together, and wrote songs, scores, and/or lyrics for musical plays and films, often with partner Anthony Newley, starting with 1961’s Stop the World — I Want to Get Off, which was then made … Read more
From This is True for 24 October 2021
Growing up in Libertyville, Ill., Saxelby developed a strong interest in …cheese. Her father said he didn’t know how, since their “classic Midwest” cheese connoisseur level was “Kraft Singles”, but she wrote a thesis — for high school — on the chemical processes behind cheesemaking. Still, when she went to New York University, she studied … Read more
From This is True for 17 October 2021
“There is no more complex piece of matter in the universe than the human brain, and so the complexity is a huge challenge,” Mishkin said in 2011. And he should know: he studied how the brain worked for more than 60 years. A neuropsychologist, Dr. Mishkin was Chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s … Read more
From This is True for 10 October 2021