Stephen William Hawking

On Monday, April 27th, 1998 at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall, over twelve hundred people gathered to see the British cosmologist Stephen Hawking deliver a speech on the unified field theory, the theory combining all of the major physics concepts of the last century into a single theory.

The enormous hall was filled with people of all ages, and upon appearing in the front of the auditorium, Hawking was immediately greeted with thunderous applause.

Then he began to a speak — a dull, monotone voice emanating from the voice synthesizer beneath his wheelchair. Hawking lost the ability to speak in 1985, and he can communicate only through a computer that permits him to speak fifteen words each minute. By 1973, he had lost the ability to walk, and he gets from place to place in a motorized wheelchair, under the constant supervision of at least one nurse. Today, only his hands are still working, and even those he can just barely use.

Stephen Hawking has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as motor neuron (or Lou Gehrig’s) disease. It is an illness in which you gradually lose the use of your entire body, sometimes over the course of a few years, or several decades. The condition is incurable, and ultimately terminal. But before he finally dies, Hawking’s vital organs will still function, as well as his mind. He will still live and breathe and think, but he will have no way of communicating with the rest of us, his brilliant mind shut up from the rest of the world.

But this grim prospect did not daunt Professor Stephen Hawking as he rode up to the front of the auditorium. He waited for the audience to cease applauding, and then he began to speak.

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942, precisely three hundred years after the death of Galileo. Even as a small child, Stephen was recognized as extraordinarily intelligent. His entire family was seen by others as highly intelligent (if eccentric), but especially Stephen. He always had a strong sense of wonder, and his whole family used to lie on the grass, looking up at the stars.

In 1959, when he was seventeen, Stephen went on to Oxford, where he studied physics and chemistry. Once, during his second year at Oxford, he was assigned thirteen questions to answer, all of them final honors questions. Three of his friends at the time (Richard Bryant, Gordon Berry, and Derek Powney) managed to complete two and a half of the questions over the course of one week, the three of them together. Stephen procrastinated until the night before the day that the questions were due. He worked from 9:00 until midnight. The next day, when his friends asked him how many of the questions he had done, he responded, “I only had time to do the first ten.”1 It was at this point that people began to realize just how outstanding Hawking really was.

Two years later, in 1961, Hawking moved onto Cambridge. Once, during his first year there, he fell down a flight of steep stairs and lost his memory for two hours. There was no permanent mental damage from the fall. But just a year later, when he was ice-skating with his mother, he fell onto the ice and couldn’t get up. It was at this time that Hawking was taken to the hospital.

It was during the winter of 1963 that Hawking was diagnosed with his disease. The doctors told him that he was going to lose use of his entire body, and they gave him two and a half years to live.

After this, Hawking became incredibly depressed and wasn’t inclined to work. After all, he was only going to live two more years; why should he bother to get his Ph.D? But with time, the disease slowed down. Eventually, Hawking grew more willing to work, especially after he became engaged. As Hawking once said in an interview, “…If I was going to get married, I’d have to get a job. And if I was going to get a job, I’d have to write some papers. So that really started me working. And I’ve been at it ever since…”2

Since that time, Hawking has accomplished a tremendous amount of work in the field of theoretical physics. In the 60’s and 70’s, Hawking did a great deal of research in the field of black holes. In 1975, he received the Pius XII medal from Pope Paul VI, as “a young scientist for distinguished work.”5 Four years later, Hawking was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, the same chair held by Sir Isaac Newton hundreds of years before him. In 1981, Hawking began to study the origin and the fate of the universe. Between 1982 and 1988, Hawking wrote a book, called A Brief History of Time, explaining (in simple terms) the laws of physics that govern the universe. The book has been translated into thirty-three languages and has sold nine million copies. Hawking has also been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Stephen Hawking is currently working to discover a unified field theory, a piece of work which will combine the works of Isaac Newton, the works of Einstein, and the works of thousands of other scientists through the years into a single theory.

So why is Stephen Hawking a hero?

Most of the classic heroes are tall, handsome, endowed with great physical strength and prowess in battle. But a real hero doesn’t have to have any of these. Physically, Hawking is weak, frail, not even able to stand, feed, or clothe himself. But in a sense, Stephen Hawking is made of tougher stuff than most other people.

Real heroes are not all paladins. A true hero is one who can continue to endure through pain, sorrow, and affliction, and can resist the overpowering temptation to quit when the times are hard. Hawking has done this. Heroes are also our best role models, people we look up to, who we respect, whether it’s for their intelligence, their courage, their strength (physical or otherwise), their virtue. To do what Hawking has done takes tremendous strength of will, as well as courage and a surpassing intelligence. All of these are heroic qualities which Stephen Hawking has exhibited throughout his entire life.

Stephen Hawking is considered by many to be amongst the most intelligent people on the planet, not without reason. He is frequently called the most brilliant scientist since Einstein. But Hawking does not share this opinion. Once, he was asked how he felt being labeled the world’s most intelligent person. He said that it was very embarrassing, and called all of it rubbish and media hype. He went on to say, “They just want a hero, and I fill the role model of a disabled genius. At least I am disabled, but I am no genius.”5

Yet in saying this, Hawking inadvertently proved his own virtue, his humility. And in doing this, he just further proved his own heroism. I don’t believe that any real heroes consider themselves to be heroes. If they did see their own greatness, then they would inevitably become arrogant, and pride is not a mark of a true hero. Modesty is a crucial element of a hero, and I believe that Hawking is truly modest; he doesn’t believe that his mind makes him better than any other human being.

Stephen Hawking’s mother (as well as Stephen Hawking himself) have said that had it not been for his disease, Stephen may not have applied himself as greatly as he has, and not accomplished all that he has accomplished. It’s true that in the years before he was diagnosed with his disease, Hawking was very bored with life; he didn’t think that there was anything worth making an effort for. Once, he even calculated that did approximately one thousand hours of work the three years he was in Oxford, an average of an hour a day. Hawking says, “I am not proud of this lack of work; I am just describing my attitude at the time.”1

But after Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, he began to work, and he has continued to work ever since, despite his disability. The disease serves as a reminder for Hawking that he only has so much time on the Earth, and that he should make the most of it while he’s still here.

But does this fact, that his illness forced him to work, make Stephen Hawking any less heroic?

I think not. Many other people in Hawking’s position would’ve immediately given up, and died alone and forlorn. They’d just feel bad for themselves, not achieve anything, not live out their lives to the fullest. Hawking, however, found the resolve to make the most of his remaining time on the Earth. Not many of us, I think, would find this resolve, and we would live the remainder of our lives unfulfilled.

Some people believe that Hawking has no emotional life, and that he lives for his work (for science) alone. When Hawking was asked for his thoughts on this during an interview, he said that, “It’s completely untrue… Science is very important to me, but it’s not enough. In fact, if that’s all that I had, then my life would be very empty. I’m very lucky to have my family; they are very important to me…”2 This statement, and many others like it, prove Hawking’s own humanity, yet another quality which every true hero, today and throughout history, exhibits.

Stephen Hawking has lived the last thirty-five years of his life with a debilitating illness. He knows that it is only a matter of time before he loses the ability to communicate altogether, and eventually, die a premature death. But that doesn’t stop him from living a good life. Stephen Hawking still enjoys life, despite his condition. He loves his family, he absorbs himself with his work, and he has many friends. He has the strength and the will to live as good a life as he can. Stephen Hawking’s entire life has been (and still is) but one, never-ending struggle — a battle with no respite. His family and his friends support him however they can, but in the end it’s a personal endeavor. However, it is because of this endeavor that Stephen Hawking has earned, along with many other men and women throughout history, the status of hero.