Robert Marshak, an almost-famous physicist, would have been 94 this year on October 11 (yesterday). He was a Brooklyn kid who graduated from high school at 15 and from Columbia College at 20. As a 22 year old graduate student in physics at Cornell, he helped Hans Bethe work out the theory of the particular series of nuclear fusion reactions that allow stars to exist. (Bethe won the Nobel prize--in 1967--for the discovery.) Marshak also worked as assistant chief of the theoretical division at Los Alamos during the development of the first atomic bomb. Then, later on, he did some theoretical elementary particle work that nearly won him a Nobel prize. See his obituary which appeared in the New York Times on Christmas Day 1992, or see the Wikipedia article about him for info on his published physics work. His death was caused by accidental drowning at Cancun two days before Christmas.
From what I can tell, he was a very wise man, although since he died at age 76 (like Einstein), he never was very wise and very old at the same time, like the Rabbi Marshak allegedly was. The fact that Rabbi Marshak turns away Larry in his hour of great need seems to indicate he was getting senile. More about that later.
