My brother Henry was pretty smart.

This is a photograph from the June 6, 1965, Rome News-Tribune, our local newspaper. Henry is receiving his National Merit scholarship. The presentation was made at the local country club, where all the rich folks met to play tennis and drink. My family were not members.

The photograph appeared in the paper on Sunday, June 6, but the actual award was on the previous Thursday. Henry graduated on the 6th. Very soon after graduation, he left to start the summer quarter at Georgia Tech. After that time, he only came home for short visits.

After his freshman year he started in the co-op program, where he alternated quarters working and attending school. After he got his BS, he immediately started graduate school. When he got his PhD, he went to a post-doc at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. From there he went to the Alcoa research center near New Kensington. From there to San Diego, where he worked at a company that Alcoa bought. From there back to Atlanta, at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Then to Chattanooga, where he worked as the primary scientist for a company that wanted to get into materials.

Henry never slowed down, not once in his life.

And he was pretty smart. I might have mentioned that before.