Not so famous, but still awesome.
January 3, 2012 8:47 PM Subscribe
Who do you admire who might not be very well known?
I want to learn more about people who have done great or interesting things, but who are for whatever reason not that famous (e.g. Bayard Rustin or Matthew Henson). I'm particularly interested in work in social justice, but explorers, inventors, etc. would also work. So, who do you admire?
I want to learn more about people who have done great or interesting things, but who are for whatever reason not that famous (e.g. Bayard Rustin or Matthew Henson). I'm particularly interested in work in social justice, but explorers, inventors, etc. would also work. So, who do you admire?
Victor Schauberger - the Tesla of plumbing!
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 8:56 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 8:56 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
She's pretty well-known in her field, but I'll go with Hortense Powdermaker.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:02 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:02 PM on January 3, 2012
Rosalyn Franklin was instrumental in discovering DNA's double helix structure. It was her data that led Watson and Crick to develop their theory about DNA structure and eventually win the Nobel Prize.
posted by hypotheticole at 9:04 PM on January 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by hypotheticole at 9:04 PM on January 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Willis Carrier
"Everybody complains about the weather, but only Carrier did anything about it."
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:09 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
"Everybody complains about the weather, but only Carrier did anything about it."
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:09 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Chester A. Arthur, whose political journey went from being an active beneficiary of one of the most corrupt political patronage machines to all but ending the patronage system of Civil Service in the Federal government.
posted by KingEdRa at 9:11 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by KingEdRa at 9:11 PM on January 3, 2012
Maurice Hilleman: He is credited with saving more lives than any other scientist of the 20th century.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:16 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:16 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
Desmond Doss. First conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor. And wow did he deserve it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:41 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:41 PM on January 3, 2012
Well, he's well known in Australia, but David Unaipon, inventor, writer, activist. He's even got his own college of indigenous education and research and is on the Australian 50.
posted by anitanita at 9:44 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by anitanita at 9:44 PM on January 3, 2012
Norman Borlaug. Developed resilient, high-yield strains of wheat, the availability of which has saved more than a billion people from starving to death.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 9:49 PM on January 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by easy, lucky, free at 9:49 PM on January 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
France Cordova. Not so much for any single thing she's done as for the broad range of her interests and achievements. She studied English, dabbled in anthropology, wrote a cookbook, and only then decided to become an astrophysicist. She's since been Chief Scientist at NASA, president of Purdue and is now chair of the Smithsonian Institution.
posted by cali at 9:54 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by cali at 9:54 PM on January 3, 2012
I guess it's debatable whether he's famous depending on what your background is, but Edwin H. Land was an amazing guy. I just read something the other day about the U.S. spy satellite program that began in the '60s and noticed that Land was involved with that, too. There wasn't much that guy couldn't do when it came to photography and a whole host of other inventions. The Wikipedia article doesn't really do him justice.
posted by buckaroo_benzai at 10:24 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by buckaroo_benzai at 10:24 PM on January 3, 2012
I think Phil Karn is a pretty cool guy.
Remember how it used to be illegal to export any kind of crypto which used more than 40 bits for a key? Phil Karn fought against that for years, including in court, and eventually convinced the Clinton Administration to drop that rule.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:50 PM on January 3, 2012
Remember how it used to be illegal to export any kind of crypto which used more than 40 bits for a key? Phil Karn fought against that for years, including in court, and eventually convinced the Clinton Administration to drop that rule.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:50 PM on January 3, 2012
Fred Shuttlesworth was an important and oft-overlooked leader of the civil rights movement.
I don't have many heroes. Reverend Shuttlesworth is one of them. He was a man of immense courage.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:05 PM on January 3, 2012
I don't have many heroes. Reverend Shuttlesworth is one of them. He was a man of immense courage.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:05 PM on January 3, 2012
Very well-known in Pakistan, but not so much elsewhere: Abdul Sattar Edhi.
posted by bardophile at 1:00 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by bardophile at 1:00 AM on January 4, 2012
I don't know if they're that well known, but here are some South Africans I quite admire, most for their work during/after apartheid:
Chris Hani
Desmond Tutu
Anjie Krog
Nadine Gordimer
Alan Paton
Vusi Mahlasela
posted by guster4lovers at 1:21 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Chris Hani
Desmond Tutu
Anjie Krog
Nadine Gordimer
Alan Paton
Vusi Mahlasela
posted by guster4lovers at 1:21 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Robert Owen - factory-owner, philanthropist, social reformer and founder of the UK's co-operative movement.
posted by ComfySofa at 2:59 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by ComfySofa at 2:59 AM on January 4, 2012
Elbert Hubbard, influential in the Progressive social movement and the Arts and Crafts art movement;
Charles Fourier, an early leader in what we generally call Socialism today. This isn't the 'fourier transform' guy.
(both enjoyed the word phalanstery, which is why I learned of both guys around the same time, but I know not which one I found first)
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:22 AM on January 4, 2012
Charles Fourier, an early leader in what we generally call Socialism today. This isn't the 'fourier transform' guy.
(both enjoyed the word phalanstery, which is why I learned of both guys around the same time, but I know not which one I found first)
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:22 AM on January 4, 2012
Tenzin Palmo, a Kagyu nun who has fought pretty much her whole life against Buddhist misogyny.
posted by milarepa at 4:58 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by milarepa at 4:58 AM on January 4, 2012
Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health.
posted by alms at 5:55 AM on January 4, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by alms at 5:55 AM on January 4, 2012 [3 favorites]
Alan Turing is famous in computing and crypto circles but isn't more widely known.
posted by mmascolino at 6:27 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by mmascolino at 6:27 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: These are all great! Thank you all.
posted by lab.beetle at 6:58 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by lab.beetle at 6:58 AM on January 4, 2012
Friedensreich Hundertwasser - artist, architect, and environmentalist
Xul Solar - artist who invented his own languages and form of musical notation. aleister crowley called him the most spiritually in-touch person he had ever met, and he was a friend and inspiration for borges.
posted by taltalim at 7:12 AM on January 4, 2012
Xul Solar - artist who invented his own languages and form of musical notation. aleister crowley called him the most spiritually in-touch person he had ever met, and he was a friend and inspiration for borges.
posted by taltalim at 7:12 AM on January 4, 2012
Maud Menten who, for some reason, never gets mentioned when the topic turns to women in science (even by my former corporate masters who were in the biotechnology business)!
I used to joke that if I had an equation (well, half an equation) named after me, I'd pretty much spend the rest of my days wandering the halls and patting myself on the back - Menten went on to do several other significant things including the first electrophoretic separation of proteins.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:18 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
I used to joke that if I had an equation (well, half an equation) named after me, I'd pretty much spend the rest of my days wandering the halls and patting myself on the back - Menten went on to do several other significant things including the first electrophoretic separation of proteins.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:18 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Margy Lesher, who was a member of the collective--called Ambitious Amazons--that founded a newsletter called Lesbian Connection in 1973. LC was like a precursor of internet message boards--all the content was written by readers, who could submit articles or respond to previously published articles, so that conversations about a certain topic might continue over the course of a year's half-dozen issues. LC also provided a directory of "Contact Dykes" that lesbians who were traveling or moving to a new area could get in touch with to learn about local resources. Over the years, the other collective members moved on and were replaced, but Margy stayed on, in fact hosting the office of LC in her dining room until the late 90s. The magazine was (and is) tremendously important to many lesbians, especially those in rural areas who had no other way to connect with the broader lesbian community. It was also a one-stop clearinghouse for lesbian culture, usually letting you know what acts were touring, who'd put out a new tape, what books were being published by the small presses, what music festivals were happening.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll mention that I worked at LC and was an Ambitious Amazon in the early 90s. Margy is a difficult person in many ways, but without her LC would certainly not have survived. Her commitment to paying a decent wage, to paying everyone (full and part-time, new staff and old) the same rate, to providing for women's retirement, made a huge difference in many women's lives.
Here is a googlebooks excerpt about LC. And here is the Lesbian Connection website.
Another woman who made a huge difference in the lives of lesbians is Terry Grant, the founder of Goldenrod Distribution, which was the central clearinghouse for women's music for three decades. Again, absolutely central to the building of the lesbian community. Terry retired recently, and Goldenrod, suffering like everybody else in the music business, is now on-line only.
I could do more of these kinds of women--like Boo and Lisa, who founded the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival--who are tremendously important but might not be known outside the lesbian community, and maybe no even to younger lesbians and queer folk. But Margy and Terry were the first that came to mind.
posted by not that girl at 7:26 AM on January 4, 2012
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll mention that I worked at LC and was an Ambitious Amazon in the early 90s. Margy is a difficult person in many ways, but without her LC would certainly not have survived. Her commitment to paying a decent wage, to paying everyone (full and part-time, new staff and old) the same rate, to providing for women's retirement, made a huge difference in many women's lives.
Here is a googlebooks excerpt about LC. And here is the Lesbian Connection website.
Another woman who made a huge difference in the lives of lesbians is Terry Grant, the founder of Goldenrod Distribution, which was the central clearinghouse for women's music for three decades. Again, absolutely central to the building of the lesbian community. Terry retired recently, and Goldenrod, suffering like everybody else in the music business, is now on-line only.
I could do more of these kinds of women--like Boo and Lisa, who founded the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival--who are tremendously important but might not be known outside the lesbian community, and maybe no even to younger lesbians and queer folk. But Margy and Terry were the first that came to mind.
posted by not that girl at 7:26 AM on January 4, 2012
Alan Turing is extremely well known in the UK, as much for his sexuality and its consequences as his career. This question is a little culturally specific - there are tons of people I admire who won't be well known overseas but are v.famous here in Britain.
That said, Dan Everett is a very cool guy and not enormously well known outside of linguistics (I'd never have come across him if I hadn't been taught by him!)
posted by mippy at 7:34 AM on January 4, 2012
That said, Dan Everett is a very cool guy and not enormously well known outside of linguistics (I'd never have come across him if I hadn't been taught by him!)
posted by mippy at 7:34 AM on January 4, 2012
One of my personal heroes is Chiune Sugihara. He and his wife, Yukiko, were remarkable people. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who, on his own initiative, handwrote thousands of transit visas for Jewish refugees so that they could get out of Poland and Lithuania during WWII. When he was forced to leave, he was literally throwing visas out the windows of the train to the crowd to get as many people out of danger as possible. He singlehandedly saved at least 6,000 people by his actions, and it's a shame that he's not better known today.
posted by zoetrope at 7:35 AM on January 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by zoetrope at 7:35 AM on January 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
Also, check out Irving Langmuir - it's not that he didn't get due recognition (they give a Nobel Prize in chemistry every year, but how many people get that and a scientific journal named after them) but, like Maud Menten took his joy in the figuring out rather than in the knowing.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:39 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:39 AM on January 4, 2012
Tom Eisner, father of chemical ecology (the study of organic chemical interactions, focusing on insects; self-link: MetaFilter obit)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:13 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by filthy light thief at 9:13 AM on January 4, 2012
Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 astronaut who didn't to go down to the moon.
posted by Chutzler at 9:19 AM on January 4, 2012
posted by Chutzler at 9:19 AM on January 4, 2012
Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED. Initially, his company offered a whopping $200 bonus for his discovery. I read about him first in this very early Wired article.
posted by Rash at 9:27 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 9:27 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under FDR and the first female cabinet member.
posted by hefeweizen at 11:16 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by hefeweizen at 11:16 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Malcolm McLean. Those identical containers on the backs of trucks and trains and stacked like lego bricks in huge piles on the docks everywhere and carried by the biggest ships in the world? He's the guy.
posted by Anything at 11:30 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Anything at 11:30 AM on January 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Elisabeth Hevelius
Elisabeth Hevelius (1647-1693), Polish astronomer. Elisabeth (born Koopmann) was the second wife of the famous astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687), and assisted him with much of his work. They married in 1663, and worked together until his death. After his death, she published the star catalogue, Prodromus astronomiae (1690), that they had worked on. This catalogue gave the position of 1564 stars. Elisabeth Hevelius is considered one of the first female astronomers.posted by pracowity at 12:04 PM on January 4, 2012
Grace Lee Boggs
Lech Walesa
Luigi Taparelli
Frank Serpico
posted by fizzix at 12:06 PM on January 4, 2012
Lech Walesa
Luigi Taparelli
Frank Serpico
posted by fizzix at 12:06 PM on January 4, 2012
Jerry Mitchell. He's what a real superhero looks like.
posted by bluefly at 12:43 PM on January 4, 2012
posted by bluefly at 12:43 PM on January 4, 2012
Tina Modotti (for her photography and her activism)
Also, Robert Hass, for his poetry and for standing up for his students at Occupy Berkeley
posted by dovesandstones at 9:32 PM on January 6, 2012
Also, Robert Hass, for his poetry and for standing up for his students at Occupy Berkeley
posted by dovesandstones at 9:32 PM on January 6, 2012
Full disclosure: I took a workshop with Hass, though not at Berkeley.
posted by dovesandstones at 9:33 PM on January 6, 2012
posted by dovesandstones at 9:33 PM on January 6, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:51 PM on January 3, 2012