Sidney Drell, Stanford theoretical physicist and national security expert, dies at 90

I was a mathematics teacher at Gunn High School when Persis and Daniel were students there. At that time, near the end of the school year, Gunn held an Open House for parents and community. One of the activities was a Math Contest for parents. It involved a series of multiple choice questions and some sort of prize was given to a "winner".
I made up a question which involved a figure which was to be put through as series of transformations (flips, slides, rotations) and the problem was to figure out the result of all of these transformations. It turned out that I made a mistake and none of the choices was correct. This was quietly and gently pointed out to me by Professor Drell. I long recalled the twinkle in his eye and his great smile. What a great person. I often saw him at concerts given at Stanford. I too, am a fan of the St. Lawrence Quartet.

great story, Mr Struthers. I knew Prof. Drell as the father of my classmate at Stanford Elementary. I learned over the years that the 'greatest' were often very personable. One day I was substituting on my brother's campus NY_Times paper route, and had a tire failure. After 5, the buildings were going to start locking up, so that was a crisis. I knocked on the door of their splendid row house, with the round turrets at the corners, and he answered the door. I explained I was a friend of Persis, and could I borrow a bicycle Right Now, Very Important. While he looked puzzled/bemused by this request, he did walk round to the shed in back and handed over a sturdy three-speed, just asking me to return it there. By their small deeds ye shall know them!

This is a great article. Thank you for sharing, David and Susan.