Memorable people you've met?

[TPFKA@W]

A few years ago Olivia Newton-John wrote a cookbook. She was having a book signing at the local Barnes and Noble. I thought I would like to have a signed copy of her book and possibly get to acknowledge her or shake her hand or some such thing. When I got to the mall the place was packed. I had to park in the back 40. (Plainfield is a lovely place to live with world class parks and hiking trails but it allowed a very stupid thing to happen when it was decided that a Southern California style outdoor style mall should be built.) When I got inside the B&N the area where the book signing was to take place was mobbed. I resigned myself to another part of the store thinking that there was no way I would stand in that line filled with children and crying babies. Ms Newton-John had not yet made an arrival. As I stood browsing I heard someone say, "Excuse me." I looked over my shoulder and saw a local cop, followed by an extremely tiny blonde woman who was followed by another cop. I pinned myself against the book bin I was standing by, mere inches away from these walking people and had I moved back even slightly I would have backed over the lady. I looked over my other shoulder as the passed and looked at the tiny blonde as she passed and realized that is was Olivia Newton-John n the flesh. I had no time to gather my wits and ask for an autograph or a take a photo of her as she whisked by.I was totally disgusted with myself and left the store and the mall.

Not sure this counts as "met" or is more of an encounter.

[Big RR]

Andy--

Reverse engineering a competitor's product is pretty unethical. I don't believe that most companies do it - at least companies I have been involved with have not behaved that way. Partly it's self-preservation, and it's what the patent system is designed for. I'm a little unsure how Westinghouse could patent a copy 'with the exact same makeup' unless the patent examiner was totally incompetent or corrupt. I've been asked a few times by a client to analyze a competitor's product and I have always refused and where necessary I have informed my bosses and received their support, even if it meant turning away a nice sized earner. Whether they found someone who could or would do it, I don't know.

There are many reasons to reverse engineer products, and one of them is to be certain the product on sale falls within the patent. You might also do so to see the differences the differences between a client's product and your own. Also, because science builds upon itself (which is one of the reason fro the patent system and its requirement to publicly disclose what you have discovered) understanding a competitor's product can be the basis upon which you can design a new and better product. All perfectly ethical IMHO.

Darren --

The company lawyers explained instead of saying it consisted of A+B+C they claimed it was a different A+B+C

Not sure what use that would be as you said they patented it. If you patent A + B + D and sell A + B + C you are not protecting your product, anymore than a competitor doing the same thing would (which is why a company will often analyze a competitor's product as I described above).

[Gob]

I was rather amazed, shortly after my dad's death was announced, we had a knock on the front door.

Stood there was a, (to us Welsh, and any follower of rugby union,) rather recognisable figure.

"Can I come in boy? How's your mother doing? Do you think she would mind if I was one of the bearers?

I was gobsmacked to say the least. "Come in Mr Bennett. She's not doing too bad.I'm sure she would be delighted."

He and my father were sporting and drinking buddies from way back , unknown to me.

[Big RR]

Getting away from celebrities, two memorable people I have met were my biochemistry professor, Frank Davis, and my endocrinology professor, Prof. (I don't remember his first name) Leathem. Leathem was an older guy (probably his mid to late 70s) who made the subject come alive; his wife died mid semester, and rather than take the time off and get a substitute, he pushed on--you could see he was devastated, but he apparently felt his obligations to the students was something he didn't want to avoid. I'll always remember him for that.

Frank Davis was my advisor for my senior research project and I learned a lot from him as well. In some ways he was the quintessential mad scientist; he had very few social skills and often mumbled to himself, but in the lab he was unparalleled. He gave me much appreciated guidance and advice, and was the first person to ever make me feel that I was a valued member of the team. Under his tutelage, I progressed from viewing myself as a pair of hands to a scientist, and that is a large gap to bridge. Indeed, I was going to pursue a PhD at the University of Wisconsin right afterwards, but fiscal cutbacks forced cancellation of my (and many others) teaching assistantships and forced me to get a job. And, as with many others, once I had a little money in my pocket and a car that reliably ran, I didn't think I could go back to being a full time student. But I have never forgotten much of what I leanred from him.

[ex-khobar Andy]

That's Phil Bennett - one my favourite players from that era along with JPR Williams, Gareth Edwards and Mervyn Davies. I don't know who that is outside him.

I always liked Phil Bennett for another reason - he spelled Phillip with two ls. Usually it's Philip from the Greek, lover of horses, one l. My middle name is Phillip - family lore is that my mother and father agreed on the names, and he went to the registry office in Glasgow to record the birth. This being Scotland not long after the war, late on a Friday afternoon, he and the Registrar were both somewhat drunk and decided between them that Phillip probably had two ls. My father never denied it. I don't know what my mother said when she saw the birth certificate.

[Long Run]

I don't know what my mother said when she saw the birth certificate.

"What the ell!" ?

[Long Run]

Not sure this counts as "met" or is more of an encounter.

Along the lines of when I was about 10 and stepped into Jim Backus's space as he was about to tee off at a celebrity tournament. He was rightly pissed, but he gave me an autograph while he gave my dad a deserved look.

[Gob]

That's Phil Bennett - one my favourite players from that era along with JPR Williams, Gareth Edwards and Mervyn Davies. I don't know who that is outside him.

He came to Mam's funeral too. He told me; "When I was captain of Wales , you're mother took me aside one night at the club, and told me; "Don't get too big for your boots Phil Bennett, I remember you running around our streets with nothing on but your nappy!" that took me down a peg or two."

[Joe Guy]

One "encounter" I had with a famous person was when I met OJ Simpson around 1980. We had no conversation. We said hello to each other and he gave me a big smile. We were at a play in San Francisco at the Presidio. His seat happened to be right behind mine. He had a tall bleach blonde woman on each side of him. At intermission he and his two dates walked around the lobby to make sure everybody saw him with his stunning arm bracelets. It was then that I realized that he was a real lady-killer.

[RayThom]

I do have a little story about Westinghouse in Monroeville, not far from Churchill PA.

A quick Westinghouse story. I worked over 20 years at the steam/gas turbine manufacturing plant in Lester, PA -- just west of PHL. In the early to mid '70s I would spend maybe a total of two to three weeks a year at the HQ data center. We were good when it came to all the latest computer systems -- IBM, CDC, HP -- always on the cutting edge.

Regarding workers a little slow on the uptake: on occasion I would visit managers out in the shops and sometimes have to dodge a "snowball" fight between the guys who were insulating high temperature parts with asbestos.

There was often a steep learning curve that was very slow to flatten.

To keep the thread on track -- i did meet D. C. (Don) Burnham on more than a few occasions. A nice man but he didn't grasp the economics of the job. Many bad decisions, and then the music died.

[datsunaholic]

The most memorable person I've ever met was Mira Slovak.

[MajGenl.Meade]

My wife met memorable people very day of her life right up until she died and then cured herself and rose again. In no particular order, Boudica, McArthur, Chester Arthur, Arthur Askey, and so on. Ran in to Carpenter on the moon that day in '69. Narrow escape in that Chicago garage in February '29 and she always told me that Peter Gusenberg was really a sweetheart. Helped her get the Literae humaniores in Latin at Oxford (the overseas one) and so on

[Guinevere]

I’ve been lucky enough to meet several of my heroes and heroines.

Back in my EPA days (sometime around 1990) I was awarded attendance at a lecture by and smallish reception for Jacques Cousteau, who was one of my childhood heroes and I am sure helped develop my interest in science. He was everything you would expect him to be. Aye Calypso!

In high school (about 1983), I ran into Cal Ripken Jr. at the movies (he lived near where I grew up, in those days the Os moved in and out if the community, it was before celebrities really started isolating themselves like they do now). Also a hero and I was dumb struck for that one. I could barely get a word out, but he was incredibly kind, shoot my hand, smiled at me (which did me in more) and asked me a couple of questions that I barely heard for the roaring in my head).

I know I have written here (or one of the boards before this one) before about being at the front table of the DCBar Association pro bono awards ceremony in 1998ish, when my firm received an award for all the work we did in the city, including the firm’s Reading is Fundamental program, which I co-managed for the firm. HRC was the featured speaker, but she brought an unannounced friend - Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So more heroine worship for me. We got brief handshakes in the reception line after the luncheon, and no time for more than a few mumbled words.

Finally, I got a ticket to see Bruce at a book signing in Cambridge in the fall of 2016. Hours in line with fellow fans, and a photo with the man and a chance to exchange a few words. I hugged him, and there is a photo on my FB page of us together with, I think, one of the biggest goofy grins of my life.

[Burning Petard]

I worked for a business making medical diagnostic kits. The sign on the front lawn changed four times during my employment, but we kept on making the same products and developing new ones just like always. We seldom applied for patents. Reverse engineering was not a problem. The art was in how it was assembled, We even told the customer(and the FDA) what all the ingredients were. The profit was in a little thing called trade secrets, that never runs out, unlike patents. Secrets like the mixture is mostly water, but will not work if the chemicals are mixed in the wrong order or stirred too long. Or the potatoes used as raw material will not work if grown in a field that was planted in wheat the year before. Or the tablet will not work if the powder is mixed and the pill compressed in a room with too high or too low a humidity--must be 15% plus or minus 2 percent.

snailgate

[dales]

With all the above posters meeting very gifted and talented people.

All I'm left with is this:

I met the real Col, Sanders when I was six.

He was opening up a new KFC franchise in the area, it was 1958.

[RayThom]

...I met the real Col, Sanders when I was six.

He was opening up a new KFC franchise in the area, it was 1958.

'58? Wasn't Sanders only a Lieutenant Colonel back then?

[Darren]

All of my memorables are everyday people you'd never think twice about if you passed them by in a store.

Sarge looked older than dirt when I met him working during a summer. He knew two things extensively that I heard about. One was blowing stuff up. He could recite the formulas for cutting girders, columns, etc. and get into why you needed to mud pack. For the record, I never took notes.

The other subject was knots. He sold a large format postcard showing knots. During the summers, knots and splices were the topic when we got together if he wasn't telling me another formula..

His son in law, Tony. also worked on the project. Tony has been born with a bum leg and arm. He sort shambled when he walked. The only thing I remember about him was he was really afraid of snakes. There was one occasion when he could have beat an Olympic sprinter off the blocks.

[dales]

...I met the real Col, Sanders when I was six.

He was opening up a new KFC franchise in the area, it was 1958.

'58? Wasn't Sanders only a Lieutenant Colonel back then?

I believe he was what they refer to as a "bird colonel".

[MGMcAnick]

I spent a great deal of the summer of 1978 at the local airport of the place I usually call my hometown, Kingman, Kansas. I went to school there from the third grade through high school. I lived at a tiny berg considered to be a wide spot in the road, a few miles away. When you teach school, as I did then, you can spend a lot of time off in the summers. I spent part of it learning to fly in a Piper Cherokee 140 that was my first plane.

I met Eldon Cessna at the airport. He was the son of Clyde Cessna, the founder of the Cessna Airplane Company. Eldon helped design some of the company's early products, including planes that he won several races with. His winnings helped the company to make its payroll when things were lean. When the company went belly up about 1934, the Cessna family moved to California. They kept the local family farm. I guess Eldon didn't win often enough. The company was revived by a nephew of the Cessnas, Duane Wallace. His was another prominent Kingman family. I never met Duane Wallace, but I knew his brother and sister-in-law who also had a LOT of Cessna stock. They were friends of my mother and stepfather.

I thought Mr. Cessna was an old man. NOT! I just googled him to discover that he was two years older in 1978 than I am now. Funny how your perspective changes. He was there to scrape the rust off of his pilot's license (With MY instructor) so that he could accompany Gar Williams to the Oshkosh fly-in. Also to participate in the farm's wheat harvest. Mr Williams had restored what was then the oldest flying Cessna, a 1928 AW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2j4qsCV_24 Now there is a 1927 AW in flying condition that was restored by Cessna volunteers. I was one of them, before the company decided they no longer needed my services.

I ran into Eldon Cessna again when I went to the Oshkosh fly-in in 1981. We talked for quite a while. He was there with the Cessna AW again. My first Cessna 170B was parked within sight of the AW as both were considered antiques.

Consider that Clyde Cessna had more than a couple of crashes before he flew a successful model. Had he been killed, the company that bares his name would never have existed. http://www.wichitaphotos.org/graphics/wpl_wpl580.jpg That looks pretty serious to me. His belief and desire to build strutless monoplanes was the major disagreement between him and Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman. They had all been together at an earlier company called Travelaire.

My stepfather recalled seeing Clyde Cessna fly one of his self-built planes down between the grandstands at what was then called the Kingman County Cattleman's Picnic. (Later dubbed a rodeo,) Mr. Cessna unfurled an American flag as he went by at very low level. The year was 1916. It was probably the first time many people had ever SEEN an airplane.

The next school year I met Matty Laird whose company built planes at the same time that Cessna was getting started. He escaped to California in the early '30s too, vowing never to return. When I met him at an airplane and pilot symposium, he was in town for the first time since then. http://www.wichitaphotos.org/graphics/wpl_wpl581.jpg Unfortunately he didn't have a rich nephew.

In 1965 I met Mary Aikins who had been, or later became, a women's aerobatic champion. My biological father was in Wichita to have some factory service work (Airworthiness Directives) done on the Beechcraft Queen Air that he piloted for the company he worked for. Mary Aikins was in the lobby at Beech when my father and I came in one morning. He knew who she was. I don't know if Mary Aikins is famous enough to qualify as anything but "locally famous", but 13 years later she was the FAA designee who gave me my check ride, and signed me off for my private pilot's license. I didn't discover that connection until several years later. I wish I'd kept a copy of the pink paper license she gave me, just for the autograph. My instructor told me (afterwards) that Mrs Aikins almost never passed an applicant on their first try, but she was the only designee we could find that could schedule a check ride that week. I needed to finish my license to I could take my sister and her husband to a wedding in Ohio THAT weekend. I passed, and we went. Mrs Aikins commented that she seldom saw an applicant who was as relaxed in the cockpit as I was.

Ahhh, but I digress...badly

[dales]

A friend of Doc's. NOT wesw's Doc....

I believe you mean Darren who goes on ad nauseum about his imaginary friend.