Dean Kamen on NPR

While listening to NPR last night (“Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” September 29th) I was overjoyed to find that Dean Kamen was a guest! He is an inventor and businessman who is most widely known for creating the Segway, for which he was ridiculed on the show. His response, as humble as it is powerful, reminded me why Dean has been one of my heroes: “What is indefensible in one generation is indispensable in another.”

It is popular these days to laugh off the Segway as silly, and certainly not achieving all its hype to “revolutionize modern transportation,” but I have to admit that I would not be surprised to see this come into reality and that those who now mock Dean will remember him as ahead of his time.

Dean Kamen, besides revolutionizing the way diabetes is treated by inventing the first insulin pump, also founded the FIRST robotics program (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) which was the highlight of my high school years. During the awards ceremony of a regional competition in Manchester, NH, I got to walk up on stage with my team and shake his hand. Later on, he landed his helicopter in the middle of our football game. I don’t hold it against him.