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:
“Now that the election is over, may not all, having a common interest, re-unite in a common effort, to save our common country?”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The actors today really need the whip hand. They’re so lazy. They haven’t got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,
For now he lives in fame though not in life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The dignity to be sought in death is the appreciation by others of what one has been in life,... that proceeds from a life well lived and from the acceptance of one’s own death as a necessary process of nature.... It is also the recognition that the real event taking place at the end of our life is our death, not the attempts to prevent it.”
—Sherwin B. Nuland (b. 1930)