Roundtable - Part I

OK, so we at least have all of our submissions for question 1 in, so let's go ahead and get started. I know pretty much everyone knows everyone, but as way of introduction in addition to me we have Mike Smith (who most people know as Christy's brother), Eric Weir (a friend of ours from college), and Becky DeForest (a friend of ours from high school) participating. I presented a total of 5 questions to each member of the panel and asked them to craft responses of around 100 words each. All involved have conceded that this is far more challenging than it first appears to be. The responses are not meant to be exhaustive and complete, but rather jumping off points for discussion and debate. As such, everyone else reading (which is, um, probably like 3 of you) are invited to comment on any/all of our responses as well as contribute your own.

One final note before we get to it is that no one read anyone else's responses (inculding me) prior to responding so any similarities are coincidental. Also, all I did was copy and paste the responses into here, so all emphasis and any typos/incoherence is the creation of the original authors. Now, on with question 1:

Who do you think was the most positively influential person in the last 100 years? I say positively in the sense that you believe the world is better off because of them (i.e. Stalin and Hitler were quite influential, but not in a good way).

John:
Albert Einstein. It’s true that many of his ideas contributed far more to the realm of academia than to the day to day life of the majority of the world’s population (when was the last time the theory of relativity affected your life?). But I think his biggest contribution and legacy is that of the celebrity scientist. He dispelled the image of the stuffy, sterile researcher and showed that it was possible to have genuine passion for math and science and to have those complement, rather than restrict, your imagination. He dedicated his life to learning and wasn’t afraid to alter his positions when the facts demanded it. His contribution in inspiring young minds to pursue math and science and to solve the seemingly unsolvable is immeasurable.

Mike:
In researching this question, I checked out the Time Magazine “100 most important people of the century” article from a few years ago as a starting point. So I started tearing apart their list. No sports figures, politicians or royals (Princess Diana… C’mon!), and no entertainers. All those people are pretty much full of it anyway, and to say the have had great influence would sadden me way too much to go on living.
So that leaves science, medicine, and business as the only PURE categories of people to make my list. My pick is Albert Einstein for his many contributions to Physics and Mathematics, and his views on politics and religion.

Eric:
Muhammad Yunus has applied microcredit to enable the poor to borrow small amounts of money for the purpose of creating new, or upgrading existing, small businesses. Since its inception in 1976, his Grameen Bank has grown to include 1,181 branches with a staff of 11,777. They have collectively loaned $3.9 billion with a recovery rate of 98%, or $3.6 billion. More than 94% of loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty. Grameenphone, an offshoot of the bank, has brought cell-phone ownership to 260,000 rural poor since 1997. In 2006, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Note: The loan statistics referenced above were taken from Yunus’ 1999 book Banker to the Poor. Wikipedia cites total Grameen loans at $6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers as of July 2007.

Becky:
I’m going to have to go with Henry Ford. He streamlined and popularized mass production, which changed the face of American industry. Plus, his serviceable (with interchangable parts!), affordable Model T's changed the way average Americans lived, traveled, and worked. The argument could even be made that the network of highways that were constructed to handle the boom of automobile traffic was a stepping stone for the telecommunications industry.