I believe that my significant success in life is due in part to Scientific American. I clearly remember being asked the what I enjoyed reading at my interview/

I believe that my significant success in life is due in part to Scientific American. I clearly remember being asked the what I enjoyed reading at my interview/visit to MIT in 1969. I explained that I read Scientific American every month, virtually cover-to-cover. I had been doing that since seventh grade after school in a neighborhood public library. The public schools I attended in Detroit back then were rough and dangerous; the walks home after school were especially perilous. So I hung out in the large public library close by and read until dinner time when the streets were safer to walk home. I started with magazines and discovered Scientific American. I read every recent copy and then started going to the bound years of past issues so I wouldn't miss a single month's column by Martin Gardner or the amazing monthly Amateur Scientist column. This lead to me reading every math book and every science book I could understand in that library. I eventually started spending 10 cents on weekends to ride the bus downtown to the main library to browse their stacks and read more about math and science. My parents grew up on farms and, while educated, knew little about math or science. My schools, until we moved from Detroit, were of little value. However, I ended up getting a Math degree and then an EE degree from MIT--it wouldn't have happened without Scientific American's influence. I was an unusual, nerdy kid, but I'm so happy with my life now. It's sad to me that Scientific American is no longer like the one I grew up reading.