Election To Hall of Fame and Death
Even though his role in the actual invention of the laser was disputed over decades, Gould was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991. In his acceptance speech he said, "I think it's important to be self-critical. You have to weed out all of the aspects of an idea that aren't going to work, or reject the entire idea in favor of some new idea. You have to be encouraged to try things, even if they don't work."
Gould died of natural causes on September 16, 2005. At the time of his death, Gould's role in the actual invention continued to be disputed in scientific circles. Apart from the dispute, Gould had realized his hope to "be around" when the Brewster's angle window patent expired in May 2005.
Read more about this topic: Gordon Gould
Famous quotes containing the words election, hall, fame and/or death:
“What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sweet death, small son, our instrument
Of immortality,
Your cries and hungers document
Our bodily decay.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“Fame sometimes hath created something out of nothing. She hath made whole countries more than nature ever did, especially near the poles, and then hath peopled them likewise with inhabitants of her own invention, pigmies, giants, and amazons: yea, fame is sometimes like unto a mushroom, which Pliny recounts to be the greatest miracle in nature, because growing and having no root, as fame no ground of her reports.”
—Thomas Fuller (1608–1661)
“For in the word death
There is nothing to grasp; nothing to catch or claim;
Nothing to adapt the skill of the heart to, skill
In surviving, for death it cannot survive,
Only resign the irrecoverable keys.
The wave falters and drowns. The coulter of joy
Breaks. The harrow of death
Depends. And there are thrown up waves.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)