I spoke to Benoît Mandelbrot on the phone on at least one occasion. I was in high school and Mandelbrot and my father were collaborating on something. They both

I spoke to Benoît Mandelbrot on the phone on at least one occasion. I was in high school and Mandelbrot and my father were collaborating on something. They both worked at IBM TJ Watson and were the product of the same "Grandes écoles" French educational system. He would call really late at night (midnight), and once I answered the phone simply to fetch my father. My understanding from, several sources -- I met one other person who worked for him at IBM, is that he was not the easiest person to work with. Anyway, I was an early fan of fractals thanks to this "inside connection", so to speak.