My Favorite People--First Essay, born 1908-1916

In the past few years I have devised several methods for making my learning of history more precise. Three that I will not speak of here are: (1) memorizing the calendar; (2) going back in time one week for each essay I have written (taking me now to early January 1945) and then spending time reading about events of that week in the world; and (3) adding the sum of calories burned plus hundredths of mile I traverse on my cardio machine when I am really pushing it (total would be 1300-1400) and then thinking of the events that happened in the corresponding year in the West. For example, when I am at 354 I think of the birth of Augustine; when I get to 911, I think of the founding of the abbey at Cluny, France, etc.

My most recent method of making knowledge more precise is as follows: I go back in my mind 100 years and then come forward year by year, learning about a person of accomplishment who was born in that year and who still lives today. In this way if anyone mentions a year, such as 1920, I have one and perhaps more than one person that come to mind immediately that was born in that year; I can then learn about and recount their accomplishments with precision and detail. By doing this I become more comfortable in the world I inhabit and, in fact, I become a more engaging learner and conversationalist.

Showing How the Method Works

I secretly began doing this in 2007, and so I had to select a person (it was a guy--sorry) who was born in 1907, was a significant contributor to a field, and was still living. I chose Augustus Hawkins. He co-sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment bill in Congress, and was a prominent African-American politician during the Civil Rights era. Once we got to 2008, however, I dropped Hawkins from my list--especially since he died on November 10, 2007. But it gave me an excuse to learn about his biography and contributions, and to renew, and deepen, my knowledge of labor history, the civil rights era, and many other things he dealt with in life. Now that we are in 2008, however, we begin with people born in 1908. This web site has a list of prominent people over 85 years old who are still alive, but I didn't in the first instance derive my list from this one. Yet, if I seek two people from each year (because people over 90 have the habit of dying more frequently than those in their 30s, for example), I will use this list. Here follows my list of prominent people born from 1908-1925. I know or will learn the precise date of their birth, along with many things that made them famous (or infamous in some instances).

1. 1908 has to go to Elliott Carter, born Dec. 11, 1908. One of my former colleagues at Reed College wrote a biography of him 25 years ago. I want to learn more about his music and the evolution of American jazz as a result of studying him. I will pick a second 1908 guy soon..maybe Claude Levi-Strauss. I better get busy, because people who are 99 may not make it to 100.

2. 1909 goes to two figures--George Beverly Shea (2/1/09) and Earl Butz (7/3/09). Both of these are on the web site list, but I figured them out long ago. I will never forget GB Shea's renditions of Gospel hymns--which I listened to with rapt attention when I was "into" Billy Graham and other evangelists more than 35 years ago. I recall a friend in college in the early 1970s saying how "old" Shea looked. Well, he still is around... Earl Butz, however, is the "villain," having said one of the most offensive lines ever quoted in public by a US Cabinet official. You can find it if you search semi-diligently. His longevity brings into question whether there is justice in the world--a worthy topic for extensive reflection.

3. I used to have two guys also for 1910, but then Gordon Hinckley, the leader of the LDS Church, died a week ago, and now I have to put all my eggs in John Wooden's basket (10/14/10). My brother Bob got me a poster of John Wooden's famous sayings. Wooden is a most remarkable person, and he still gets out to watch UCLA Basketball games on occasion.

4. I chose Bob Pamplin SR for my 1911 guy (not on the web site list). Bob SR, born 11/25/11, is the retired President of Georgia-Pacific. One of his claims to fame is that the last battle of the civil war was fought on his grandfather's property in VA (he told that to me when I last spoke to him many years ago). He had some of the cannon balls in his office in downtown Portland. I don't suppose that the Civil War is still alive for him... Here is the Wikpedia article about him.

5. As for 1912, I can do no better than Studs Terkel, born 5/16/12, the author and oral historian, who discovered the field of oral history long before it became chic to do so. His classic interview on Working was very important to me about 30 years ago...

6. My 1913 guy again is on no one's list, but it is Tom Stoel, the senior partner of Stoel Rives LLP in Portland, where I was a litigation attorney earlier in this decade. He may have been born in 1912, in which case, I will have to find another 1913 person. Tom was trained as a tax lawyer (indeed, in the 1937 IRS Code!), and remains a most wonderful, humane and interesting person. He lost his beloved wife of many years in 2007...

7. The 1914 guy has to be one of my idols, Jack LaLanne, born 9/26/14. He was a fitness guru before it was cool to be one. Indeed, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, his commitment to exercise and weight training, and his unabashed methods of furthering his own cause (and the cause of working out) makes him a memorable figure for our age. I don't think he will die soon; in fact, he said that dying would ruin his image...

8. The 1915 guy is George Rives, the other senior partner in my former firm. Born in July 1915, George was the top utility lawyer in Oregon for decades. His KY gracious manner, Christian charm and intellect led me to do his oral history for the US District Court of Oregon Historical Society. Here is an essay on that interview.

9. I have two 1916 guys. The first is Dr. C. Everett Koop, born 10/14/16. I first heard about him long before he became a nationally visible person as President Reagan's outspoken Surgeon General. In my Evangelical days (late 1960s -mid 1970s) Koop's name would occisionally come up as an accomplished surgeon at Children's Hosptial in Philadelphia who was a Presbyterian to boot. It made me wonder why people called people by their middle names when they had perfectly good first names.... The other 1916 guy is Kirk Douglas, born 12/9/16. He is not necessarily my favorite actor, but I won't forget him because he is probably the most illustrious 20th century graduate of St. Lawrence Univ. in Canton, NY, where both my parents went. My father first mentioned this to me more than 40 years ago, and for some reason I remembered it.

Conclusion

Actually, I will need one more essay to bring this up to 1925, but I would like to pause with you in conclusion and say that if you pursue a method like this you will gradually become acquainted with most areas of human inquiry and will learn a lot of interesting facts in the meantime. Learn the precise dates of birth--it is a good discipline and will hold us in good stead when everyone else's mind is beginning to fade.

Join me for my favorite people, born from 1917-1925 and still alive, in the next essay.

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