Respect Your Elders: Eugene Lee
#RespectYourElders: Eugene Lee (born 1939) is an award-winning American set designer. He is most known for his work on Broadway and his role as an original production designer for “Saturday Night Live,” where he still works today. Lee got his start on Broadway in 1972 for his work on “Dude.” Though the show only lasted […]
Respect Your Elders: Yuichiro Miura
#RespectYourElders: Yuichiro Miura (born 1932) is a Japanese alpinist and the oldest man to climb Mount Everest, which he accomplished for the first time at age 70. He went on to break his own record two additional times at age 75 and 80. Miura carried approximately 65 pounds on his back 3 times a week […]
Respect Your Elders: Norman Lear
#RespectYourElders: Norman Lear (born 1922) is a critically acclaimed television comedy writer and producer, most commonly known for his work on “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times” and introducing the world to the famous Archie Bunker on “All in the Family.” Lear is known for being one of the first television producers to spotlight current social and […]
Respect Your Elders: Bob Dylan
American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (born 1941) became the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature last week. He is the first musician to ever receive this honor, which takes into account a lifetime of work.
Respect Your Elders: Betsey Johnson
#RespectYourElders: Betsey Johnson (born 1942) is one of America’s most celebrated designers, and has delighted fashionistas of many generations since the 1960s. Johnson got her start after winning a guest editor contest for fashion magazine Mademoiselle. Soon after, Johnson became the in-house designer for the trendy Paraphernalia boutique and went on to open her own […]
Respect Your Elders: Maggie Smith
#RespectYourElders: Dame Margaret “Maggie” Smith (born 1934) has worked as a stage, film and television actor for over 60 years. This week, at age 81, she won her fourth Emmy award, the third for her role as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham in the beloved “Downton Abbey” series. If you’re a fan of the […]
Respect Your Elders: Floyd Norman
#RespectYourElders: Floyd Norman (born 1935) was the first African-American Walt Disney Productions hired as an animator, and at age 81, he’s still in the studio today. Norman was raised in Santa Barbara, California and started working at Disney in 1956. The first film he worked on at Disney was “Sleeping Beauty,” which was released in […]
Respect Your Elders: Iris Apfel
#RespectYourElders: Known for her bold sense of style, Iris Apfel (born 1921) is the 94-year-old American fashion icon whose career is still going strong. Apfel was born and raised in Queens, New York, and studied art history at New York University before attending art school at the University of Wisconsin. She married her husband, Carl, […]
Respect Your Elders: Mark Spitz
#RespectYourElders: In honor of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games beginning in Rio this past weekend, it’s a good time to look back at one of the greatest Olympic champions in U.S. history. Mark Spitz (born 1950) is a former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He won seven gold medals in the 1972 Summer Olympics […]
Respect Your Elders: Carmen Herrera
#RespectYourElders: Carmen Herrera is finally getting full recognition for her artistic works — at age 101. Herrera, a Cuban-born abstract painter, began making art in the 1940s and 50s, but she was often overshadowed by male counterparts. According to National Public Radio, Herrera did not even make her first sale until age 89. But this year, […]
Respect Your Elders: Barbara Cook
#RespectYourElders: Barbara Cook (born 1927), a Tony-award winning actress, recently published a memoir about her life titled “Then & Now.” Cook is best known for her performances in the original productions of Broadway musicals “Plain and Fancy” (1955), “Candide” (1956) and “The Music Man” (1957). Cook, a soprano, won a Tony Award for Best Actress […]
Respect Your Elders: Dr. Henry Heimlich
#RespectYourElders: Dr. Henry Heimlich (born 1920) is an American thoracic surgeon best known for inventing the Heimlich maneuver, a technique that utilizes abdominal thrusts to stop someone from choking. Heimlich graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1943. He first published his ideas on the Heimlich maneuver in a 1974 article titled “Pop Goes the […]
Respect Your Elders: Jane Goodall
#RespectYourElders: Dr. Jane Goodall (born 1934), is one of the world’s best-known primatologists, a scientist that studies primates. Inspired by a love of animals, Goodall traveled to the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in 1960, in what is now Tanzania. Over time, the chimpanzees became more comfortable with Goodall’s presence, allowing her to observe a variety […]
Respect Your Elders: John Glenn
John Glenn (born 1921), the oldest person to fly in space, is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature. Glenn trained as a military pilot and served in World War II and the Korean War as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. He later served as a test pilot and completed the first transcontinental flight that averaged […]
Respect Your Elders: Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu (born October 7, 1931) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature. Desmond Tutu originally rose to prominence in the 1980s as the first black Archbishop of Cape Town and a staunch opponent of apartheid in South Africa. Since then he has been involved in political and social activism, as well as humanitarian campaigns across the […]
Respect Your Elders: Stan Lee
Longtime cartoonist Stan Lee (born December 28, 1922) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature. Since the 1950s, he has created many of America’s most beloved superheroes for Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man and the X-Men. He is one of the most influential comic book writers in comic book history and American popular culture. Born Stanley Martin Lieber […]
Respect Your Elders: Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder (born June 11, 1933) is this week’s #RespectYourElder feature. Wilder has received critical acclaim for his roles in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, and Silver Streak. Originally born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he gained an interest in acting at an early age as a way to cheer up his […]
Respect Your Elders: Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary (born April 12, 1916) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature. Over 91 million copies of Cleary’s books have been sold worldwide, in 20 languages. Cleary began publishing classics including Henry Huggins and Beezus and Ramona in the early 1950s, and these books remain popular to this day. Cleary has said she did not have […]
Respect Your Elders: Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone is an Italian composer, orchestrator, and conductor who has composed over 500 different works for movies and television. He is most well known for writing the soundtracks of movies such as Cinema Paradiso; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; The Mission and The Hateful Eight.
Respect Your Elders: Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro (August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011), the first female vice presidential candidate for any major American political party is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature.
Respect Your Elders: P.D. James
P.D. James (1920 – 2014), a prominent British crime novelist, is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature.
Respect Your Elders: The 14th Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935), also known as the 14th Dalai Lama, is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature.
Respect Your Elders: Rita Moreno
Actress and singer Rita Moreno (born 1931) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature. Moreno was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New York City with her mother early in her childhood. At age 11, she began voice acting for Spanish dubbings of English-language films, and appeared on Broadway at age 13. Her most famous role […]
Respect Your Elders: Coretta Scott King
Lifelong civil rights activist Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature.
Pride in Aging: Nola Ochs
In 2007, Nola Ochs became the world’s oldest college graduate when she graduated from Fort Hays State University (FHSU) at the age of 97.
