OK he's not a "social" figure as such but he's the real Mr Universe. It's heartening to read the numerous tributes to Stephen Hawking who was so inspirational for so many given his physical limitations.
Whispers never actually met him but we did once attend a presser for him. It's very hard to describe the feeling of being in the same room as Hawking. It's not something you ever forget.What can we say..others are saying it so much better.
Here is one our favourite pix of the great scientist. It's Stephen Hawking (with the walking sticks) before he was confined to that wheel chair. He was attending a protest about the disastrous Vietnam War in the 1960s.
# As a callow youth Whispers wagged school to attend a similar anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sydney as the visiting US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to drive by. The then NSW (corrupt) premier Robin Askin had coined the phrase "all the way with LBJ" and accompanied the President in his limo. As the US President's motorcade sped down College Street a bunch of us demonstrators surged out onto the road and temporarily stopped the President's car.
Askin ordered his driver to "drive over the bastards !". Fortunately he didn't but it became a small moment in history.
# Note: the very beautiful actress Vanessa Redgrave on the right.
Whispers never actually met him but we did once attend a presser for him. It's very hard to describe the feeling of being in the same room as Hawking. It's not something you ever forget.What can we say..others are saying it so much better.
Here is one our favourite pix of the great scientist. It's Stephen Hawking (with the walking sticks) before he was confined to that wheel chair. He was attending a protest about the disastrous Vietnam War in the 1960s.
# As a callow youth Whispers wagged school to attend a similar anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sydney as the visiting US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to drive by. The then NSW (corrupt) premier Robin Askin had coined the phrase "all the way with LBJ" and accompanied the President in his limo. As the US President's motorcade sped down College Street a bunch of us demonstrators surged out onto the road and temporarily stopped the President's car.
Askin ordered his driver to "drive over the bastards !". Fortunately he didn't but it became a small moment in history.
# Note: the very beautiful actress Vanessa Redgrave on the right.
