The Thicket's Prodigy: The Extraordinary Life of an Improbable Genius

The Thicket's Prodigy: The Extraordinary Life of an Improbable Genius

From Texas’s Big Thicket’s Poverty The 3:15 train left Polk County on September 2, 1930, carrying a most extraordinary passenger. Eugene H. “Gene” Brock, a genius of the type about whom astounding stories are told was leaving one of the country’s most backward and impoverished areas: East Texas’s notorious Big Thicket. To NASA and the Bomb What Gene couldn’t know was one day he would achieve unique status: he would become an internationally acknowledged expert in two of the twentieth century’s most important scientific discoveries: nuclear energy relating to fission and the bomb that ended World War II, and high-powered computer systems. In finale a Congressional Appointment nominated him to head NASA’s Computation and Analysis Division for Manned Space flight. As an outcome, astronaut Neil Armstrong’s walk on the Moon. Born a fifth-generation progeny of East Texas subsistence farmers, Gene’s story begins with the hardships he endured through the Great Depression, which kept him homeless for much of the time he was earning a degree in mathematics and physics from Texas Technological College. As a fitting epilogue the author tells of his own pioneering role in another scientific discovery when Tim Berners-Lee introduced his breakthrough World Wide Web technology, to became known across the globe as the Internet, and the term “startup company” became the scientific phenomenon of the 1990s. When pen was first put to paper, The Thicket's Prodigy was envisioned as a  simpler undertaking. The Thicket's Prodigy began as a biography of my experience as the founder of a startup company taking advantage of Tim Berners-Lee's brilliant introduction of the World Wide Web. The story was made particularly interesting by Tim's selfless dedication of the Internet to open source . Anyone could use it for whatever they wanted, without payment required or interference from outside parties. But that story was quickly overshadowed. In researching my father's history I discovered a story overwhelmingly more interesting than my own. I was aware he had participated in redesigning the Manhattan Project's atomic bomb during a four year period in which we lived in Los Alamos. I also knew that he was raised in an East Texas area known as the Big Thicket. Both topics required considerable research. Los Alamos's history during our time while there (1948 - 1951) had been classified as secret, My experience was limited to what I could see and hear. Fortunately, clarification  was well documented, and I was able to access that information which had only relatively recently been declassified. That material was supplemented by Dad who had a few of his own interesting snippets related to the tests which had resulted in major explosions heard and felt almost daily in our grade school classroom. After retiring Dad had some thoughts about his early days. In a nostalgic write-up he thought back to the times when a fifth-generation boy from the Big Thicket was all but expected to continue life as an East Texas farmer. Only he had ambition. He would be "an educated man." How that was accomplished was an inspiring story in itself. Extensive research for both categories - Los Alamos and the bomb, and the Big Thicket - was   necessary.- it also clarified a discovery: my father was brilliant. He had. proven himself twice as a pioneering participant in two of the 20th century's most important scientific discoveries: power of the atom, and the computer's role in expanding our knowledge at a considerably escalated rate. Placing a man on the moon was one high profile event most can identify with.. You may also find the chapter about Los Alamos immediately following the end of World War II, as seen through the eyes of  an eight-year-old , to be interesting as well.. The 3:15 train left Polk County on September 2, 1930, carrying a most extraordinary passenger. Eugene H "Gene" Brock, a genius of the type about whom astounding stories are told, was leaving East Texas - one of the country's most backward impoverished areas. His destination - Texas Technological College. What Gene didn't know was one day he would achieve a unique status, one attained by only a most select few - as an internationally acknowledge expert in two of science's newest fields: nuclear energy relating to fission and the bomb that ended World War II, and high-powered computer systems - the likes of which put a man on the Moon. Gene's story is brought to life by his son, Ronald, and has humble beginnings in Texas' "Big Thicket." It follows the young Gene, born a fifth-generation progeny of East Texas subsistence farmers, and the hardships he endured through the Great Depression which kept him homeless for much of the time he was earning his degree in mathematics and physics. A burning desire to master new challenges led Gene to Los Alamos and a pivotal role in redesigning the Manhattan Project's atomic bomb. But one scientific challenge wasn't enough. Gene became a