CREDIT: MR. WIZARD STUDIOS INC.
THE WIZARD. Don Herbert, who died 12 June at age 89, never got to put "Dr." in front of his name. Nonetheless, he helped jump-start thousands of careers in science as television's Mr. Wizard, reaching a national audience starting in the 1950s with his own show and appearances on other programs as well as through radio, books, and magazines.
Herbert prepared, in a way, for doing science on live TV by majoring in English and general science in college and performing in school theatre. His mastery of the medium was evident whether he and his child guest were using atmospheric pressure to crush a can, timing the speed of a cockroach, or finding all the types of energy in a Rube Goldberg contraption.
"I was awed by him," says chemistry educator Bassam Shakhashiri of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who first saw Watch Mr. Wizard when he arrived in the United States from Lebanon as a college student. "It came across that he was himself learning and enjoying it. He's had a lasting effect on kids of all ages."
