ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes Bill Schopf’s early development – the character-building aspects of his youth that help to understand how he has been able to build and mold his science – an account of the personal underpinnings of a paradigm shift which Tom Kuhn sought. As the discussion elucidates, even as a youth, Bill did not “compute,” unlike his 4th-grade classmates, announcing that he aspired “to be a professor.” And already at that time he had the notion that “if you see a problem, solve it; if you see a wrong, right it.” So, he figured out how to break in to his grade-school gymnasium to give his basketball team a place to practice during the winter snows. He then went on to have success in music, sports, school, teaching, research, and personal life (even with girlfriends!). As Tom Kuhn had requested, this discussion helps to understand the human-based roots of how a paradigm shift came to pass.
