- The ARC - California Edition -

Some of Our Past Earthshaking People

Woman of the Century 

The Prevention News has selected Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu as the Woman of the Century. She later became known as Sister Teresa of the Missionaries of Charity. Residing in Calcutta, India, she started a religious order that has grown to over 3,000 in over 500 missions throughout the poorest sections of the world. Mother Teresa has been awarded many honors for her lifelong work with the poor and the disabled. These awards includes the Nobel Peace prize. 

Woman of the Century 
Honorable Mention 

Honorable mention as the Woman of the Century is Helen Keller, who was robbed of her sight and hearing at the age of 18 months and yet grew up to be an intelligent and effective spokeswoman for the rights of the disadvantaged. 

Prevention Woman of the Century 

The Prevention News has selected Elizabeth Boggs from within the Arc of the United States to be our "PREVENTION" Woman of the Century. Dr. Boggs, as a key person during the early development of our movement, presented the argument that this organization must include in its mission statement a goal of preventing mental retardation, brain injury, and other disabilities. 

Man of the Century 

Two men have been selected by The Prevention News as our choice for Man of the Century. Francis Crick and James Watson formed a powerful team during 1951. They brought together knowledge from a wide variety of backgrounds, including physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and ornithology (the study of bird viruses). After two years as a research team, they had figured out the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA. This chemical, they later wrote, is formed in the shape of a double helix and can “unzip” to reproduce itself, each half carrying life’s hereditary information. 

For this discovery they each received a Nobel Prize, and then went on to separate famous paths. Francis Crick moved into the field of brain research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. James Watson left the pure science field and became the head of the Human Genome Project. 

Man of the Century 
Honorable Mention 

Honorable mention as the Man of the Century is Alexander Fleming, a research scientist that discovered an enormously effective infection-fighter. This was a discovery which was recognized by Fleming the moment he saw the halo among the contaminated mold culture he had accidentally left out in his lab. 

Fleming’s deductive reasoning into the cause of this halo changed the course of history. He named the active ingredient in that mold penicillin. Penicillin was to later change forever the treatment of bacterial infections, and spawned the huge pharmaceutical industry. 

Prevention Man of the Century 

The Prevention News has selected Robert Guthrie from within The Arc to be our “Prevention” Man of the Century. Guthrie developed a fast, inexpensive screening test for Phenylketonuria and over 30 other treatable congenital or genetic metabolic disorders that cause mental retardation or death. 

Guthrie was also active spreading knowledge within countries throughout the world about how to prevent damage from disease, injury, toxins, and other known causes of brain injury, mental retardation, and other disability.