June 20th, 2007
‘Mr. Wizard’ Honored by House of Representatives
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
You may recall ‘Mr. Wizard’, Don Herbert, passed away last week. In a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday, he was honored by Congress.
Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., co-sponsored the resolution to honor Herbert, who died of cancer at the age of 89 last week.
“Everyone has heard about him in some way, even though not everyone has been able to watch him,” Ehlers said. “He’s the guy who invented this business of young folks watching science on TV in a very entertaining way. Source: ABC News
We Say: I know there are some (maybe even me!) who will say the Reps should be spending time on more critical resolutions and bills, but Herbert was a major influence to many children and who knows how many discoveries are related to him influencing a young scientist. And, anyway, I’m sure they didn’t spend much time arguing over this one! May he Rest in Peace.
Kevin K. says:
It’s sooooo nice of them to have waited until AFTER the guy died to honor him. >: (
June 20th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Lewie says:
Contrary to you Michael, I encourage our esteemed representatives to spend their time on such ceremonial matters. It leaves less time for them to meet with their corporate overlords. In fact, I’d like to see them all out painting the Capitol dome, or maybe even reading the constitution, just about anything except actively trying to legislate. But maybe I’m a cynic.
June 21st, 2007 at 4:36 am
Richard Tanguay says:
What is this resolution about? What is it supposed to do? These are just some of the unanswered questions I have acquired since I read this article
June 28th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Duffy Weber says:
Well, I’ve finally found ONE thing I can agree with the current republicans on.
Don Herbet was a great man, and he deserves to be officially lauded as an educator and a hero.
I’ll always be a fan.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:44 am
MJ Staley says:
I sure remember Mr. Wizard. When I was a kid, his show was a “don’t miss” in my house, even if my parents wanted to watch something else. They knew this exposure to science - free of charge, no less - was more important than the junk being broadcast on the other 2(!) channels.
It is unfortunate that’s it’s not until their obit hits the news that people finally say, “Jeez, we gotta honor this guy”. But that’s the way it’s always been, and I don’t guess it will change.
(Though it is kind of remarkable theat the HR passed this, considering how few of them ever saw any of his shows.)
What’s even more unforunate is that nobody seems to be available to pass the baton to. No, it’s not unfortunate - for the kids, it’s sad.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Liz Grossman says:
It’s because of watching Mr. Wizards World on Nickelodeon on Sunday after-noons that I was able to answer a question and do a demonstration in one of my college courses at Central Michigan University. the question was the one about getting a hard boiled egg into a “Ball” jar. The answer is light a match and drop it into the jar. Then put the egg over the hole. What happens is the match burns up all of the oxygen and in trying to gey more it sucks the egg into the jar.
Thank you Mister Wizard, where ever you are.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:30 am