Elmer Ambrose Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry was born in 1860.
His father was a carpenter and his mother died when he was one day old. He was reared by an aunt in Cortland, New York. He invented household items as a young child. …
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Cyrus Hall McCormick
Cyrus McCormick was born in 1809 near the Rockbridge-Augusta County Line in Western Virginia.
His grandparents had moved there with their five children from Cumberland County Pennsylvania. The family owned several hundred acres and operated a blacksmith business. At the …
Read MoreJohn Forbes Nash Jr.
John Forbes Nash Jr. was born in 1928 in Bluefield, West Virginia.
His father was a chemical engineer from Texas and his mother, Virginia, was a native of Bluefield. Nash is famous for his pioneering contributions to Games Theory.
He …
Read MoreWilliam Alfred Fowler
William Alfred Fowler was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911.
His grandfather was a coal miner who emigrated to Pittsburgh from Scotland. He was educated at Ohio State University in engineering physics. While attending college, he worked as a recreation …
Read MoreClifford Glenwood Shull
Clifford G. Shull was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1915.
His parents were from farming sections of rural Perry County. He had a sister and a brother and was educated at what was then Carnegie Institute of Technology, living at …
Read MoreCharles Hard Townes
Charles Hard Townes was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1915.
He attended Furman University and graduated with honors at the age of 19. He completed a Master’s degree at Duke and a Ph. D. in 1939 at Caltech. He …
Read MoreBurrhus Frederic Skinner
B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1904.
He attended the same high school as both of his parents and graduated in a class of eight. He attended Hamilton College in Clinton New York and earned a bachelors …
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