Maddenation

Good Bye Mr. Wizard

Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert, died last week. I just found out today (as I was in Kentucky all last week and cut-off from the rest of the world). Lots of things are running through my head. Mostly this - I loved Mr. Wizard’s World (on Nickelodeon when I was a kid). It is one of the many things that influenced me to become a science teacher. Don Herbert (along with Dad, Mr. Mieta, Mr. A) taught me about the magnificence and wonder of science. And he did it with household goods and with easy to do experiments.

Here are two quotes from an LA Times article, “Over the years, Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country,” George Tressel, a National Science Foundation official, said in 1989.”

“I fully realize the number is virtually endless when I talk to scientists,” he said. “They all say that Mr. Wizard taught them to think.”

DavidMemories06/20/07 1 comments

Comments

Dad • 06/20/07 8:03 PM:

If anyone deserved to live forever, surely it was Don Herbert. In fact, he did have a career that gives him virtual immortality, first teaching me about science and then coming back and teaching my children.

How often can you say of someone that they induced the same feelings of nostalgia and peace in both you and your father? Thank you, Mr. Wizard, for enriching our lives.

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