January 21

Stephen Hawking at DeAnza College, January 21, 2000.

My wife, Diane, is the gorgeous redhead between Hawking and me.

From an account of Hawking's visit to DeAnza by Bryan Rockstroh:

"...The smile is what gets you. It strikes without warning and when it hits it seems to change Stephen Hawking from a wheelchair-bound physicist to a mischievous grandfather who would sooner play a practical joke on you than spend a lifetime trying to decipher God's master plan...

"Professor Stephen Hawking visited De Anza College on Friday, Jan. 21, and addressed a wall-to-wall crowd for lunch in the Hinson Campus Center. The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, dressed in a relaxed red-and-blue plaid shirt, spoke to the students through the voice synthesizer on his wheelchair for about twenty minutes on the topic of 'Awakening the Scientist in All of Us...'

"Astronomy instructor Sherwood Harrington conducted the question-and-answer session following the talk. Students wrote questions down on slips of paper and handed them in before the lecture began, and some of the representative questions were directed at Hawking.

"It takes him some time to answer each question because he has to compose the answer on the computer on his wheelchair, word by word. It's a long process that seems to underscore the quiet determination of the man. During the lapse between question and answer, other non-scientific questions were thrown at his assistant, Chris Burgoyne.

"'What kind of music does he listen to?' one student asked.

"'He listens to ear-bleeding Wagner,' replied Burgoyne..."

Date: January 21, 2000
Location: DeAnza College, Cupertino, California
By: DeAnza College Public Information Department