Who is a genius around here? A lot of people would say that Glenn Curtiss of Hammondsport was a genius, and you could certainly make the case. He excelled in designing, using, and manufacturing engines, airplanes, motorcycles, and travel trailers – not to mention making his mark in city development. He might have been what Arthur Squires called a “maestro of technology.” All with an eight-grade education! So Glenn probably qualifies.
Just lately a lot of folks might think about the Hathwar brothers of Painted Post. Sriram (2014) and Jairam (2016) were each co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee – in both cases, after a nail-biting struggle that tens of thousands of us watched live on TV. (Not that they felt any pressure, of course!)
We have two folks locally who are “officially” geniuses. They were honored with John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grants,” for “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction… not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential.” The award includes a large stipend, recently raised to $625,000.
BILL T. JONES moved to Steuben County as a child, in a family that came first as migrant farm workers, and was graduated from Wayland High School in 1970, then went on to SUNY Binghamton. He got his MacArthur Fellowship in 1994.
But in his “spare time” he has also picked up Kennedy Center Honors; two Tony Awards; a National Medal of Arts; the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize; and six honorary doctorates, besides being inducted into the Steuben County Hall of Fame and the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame… and numerous other honors.
At Wayland he was active in drama and at Binghamton in dance. He has made his mark as a dancer and as a choreographer, and he has been honored for his influence in the development of young American artists. Under his senior photo in the Wayland yearbook is the verse, “Where be bonds to bind the free? All the world was made for me!” Prophetic words, we’d have to agree.
DR. MARC EDWARDS, who got his MacArthur fellowship in 2007, has had a life and career that in a sense are mirror images of Bill T. Jones’s. Dr. Edwards was born in Hornell (1964) and lived in Troupsburg until the family moved to the Buffalo area, where he got his schooling. (His grandmothers still live in Steuben County.) While Bill T. Jones has soared in the arts, Marc Edwards has excelled in the sciences.
In 2004 Time Magazine named him one of America’s most innovative scientists, and just a couple of months ago Time named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He’s been most in the news recently for his role in blowing the whistle on the Flint water crisis; he earlier played a similar role in Washington, D.C., in that case tackling the Centers for Disease Control directly and publicly… and successfully.
Dr. Edwards is Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. Like Bill T. Jones, he has won numerous academic and professional awards.
Looking at the Flint case MSNBC said, “Up against ignorance and indifference, Edwards and [colleague] Hanna-Attisha were right, they were brave and they were insistent… these two tough, caring researchers are the detectives who cracked the case.” We can only applaud.