Helen Keller (Alabama) 1880 - 1968

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Helen Keller (Alabama)
1880 - 1968

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This inspiring woman was an
American educator, advocate for the
blind and deaf and co-founder of the
ACLU (American Civil Liberties
Union).

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Stricken by an illness at the age
of 2, Keller was left blind and
deaf.

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Beginning in 1887, Keller's teacher, Anne
Sullivan, helped her make tremendous
progress with her ability to communicate,
and Keller went on to college, graduating in
1904.

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In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the
Horace Mann School for the Deaf in
Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn
to speak so that others could understand
her.

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From
1894 to 1896, Keller attended the WrightHumason School for the Deaf in New York
City. There, she worked on improving her c
ommunication skills and studied regular ac
ademic subjects.

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John Nash (West Virginia)
• 1928 - 2015

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John Nash was one of the greatest
thinkers in mathematics of the 20th
Century.

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• After school Nash won a scholarship to
the Carnegie Institute of Technology
where he first studied chemical
engineering, later moving to chemistry
and then to mathematics as he
struggled with both technical drawing
and laboratory work. He was quickly
singled out for his skills in mathematics
and one of his professors described him
as a mathematics genius in his
recommendation
to
Princeton
University.

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Later, around 1958, while teaching at
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology the first signs of Nash’s
illness were to become apparent.

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He would disappear without warning som
etimes for days on end and on return wo
uld offer no explanation for his absence,
he would go off into long reveries in the
midst of his lectures,
he would make seemingly meaningless st
atements to colleagues and students and
significantly he became increasingly para
noid for instance not allowing visitors to h
is office to stand between him and the do
or and believing that he was being follow
ed all the time.

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Nash became known as
the Phantom of Fine Hall
because of the way he
would prowl the college
halls at all hours scribing
intricate
and
arcane
formulae on blackboards.

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During his life Nash was the
recipient of many awards for
his work in mathematics
including the prestigious John
Von Neumann Theory Prize in
mathematics but perhaps he
will be best remembered for
the Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences which he
was awarded in 1994.

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For people suffering with
schizophrenia and those close
to them, John Nash’s story
provides us with great hope.
To acknowledge that in some
cases at least of this bizarre
illness which is so often cruel
and destructive, the sufferer
may, over time and with
skilled professional help and
the patience and care of their
loved-ones learn to live a
fulfilling life once again.