Martin Gardner 1914—2010
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SI Sept/Oct pgs_SI MJ 2010 7/22/10 4:41 PM Page 28 MARTIN GARDNER 1914—2010 A Tribute and Celebration Martin Gardner, the polymath writer, critic, and column appears on page 10.) Throughout his life, and mind, we here present invited tributes from a skeptic who is widely regarded as the father of Gardner wrote knowledgeably about an astonish- number of noted skeptics and scholars. We begin modern skepticism, died May 22, 2010, in Norman, ing range of topics with a combination of clarity, with two of his closest friends and colleagues, Ray Oklahoma, at the age of ninety-five. He helped wit, and critical intelligence that delighted readers Hyman and James Randi. Like him, they were found- found our Com mittee for Skeptical Inquiry (then worldwide. Those who knew him regarded him as ing fellows of CSICOP and original and longtime members of its executive council. CSICOP) and wrote for this magazine since its a dear friend, a modest man, and a national intel- inception. (His final “Notes of a Fringe Watcher” lectual treasure. In a celebration of his life, writings, —The Editor Martin Gardner: In the Name of Science (1952). The book was re-issued in 1957, with some updat- A Polymath to the Nth Power ing, under the title Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. It serves as the proto- RAY HYMAN type for modern skeptical criticism. From 1958 to 1961, while I was doing Persi Diaconis phoned me on May 17, supported by the evidence. He felt that psychological research for General Elec - 2010. He told me he recently spoke his background as a magician enabled tric, I lived in Hartsdale, about twenty- with Martin Gardner by phone. Among him to explain how many alleged psy- five miles from Martin Gardner’s home other things, they had talked about me. chic occurrences were due to trickery or on Euclid Avenue in Hastings-on-the- He also said that Martin sounded fine mundane causes. Hudson, New York. During this period and seemed to be as cognitively sharp as I first met Martin in 1950 at the my wife and I would get together with always. I had not spoken with Martin home of Bruce Elliot in Greenwich Martin and his wife, Charlotte, for din- for quite a while. I made a note on my Village in New York. Bruce published a ner. I also was able to visit and talk with calendar to call him on Saturday, May 22. magazine on magic, The Phoenix, and him about our mutual interests. On that Saturday, I was about to call wrote several books about magic. Every When I moved to Oregon in 1961 to Martin when I got a phone call from Saturday he hosted a gathering for magi- work at the University of Oregon, Martin Martin’s son, James. James told me that cians from New York or who happened phoned Jerry Andrus and told him I had his father had passed away a few moments to be in the vicinity. I was twenty-one moved into his neighborhood. He sug- earlier. years old when I was invited to attend. gested that Jerry contact me. Jerry did and Many persons—too many—would This was the first time I met many we became close friends until Jerry’s seek mystical meaning in this “coinci- celebrity magicians such as Dai Vernon, unfortunate death in dence.” Martin, of course, devoted Jay Marshall, and Martin Gardner. August 2007. Martin much of his life to teaching us how eas- Martin and I became good friends. I and Jerry are the two ily our minds create meaning out of post knew him as a magician, a creator of most impressive indi- hoc juxtapositions of random events. magic effects, and a writer of excellent viduals I have ever Although he thought that most believers books on magic. In addition, we shared known. Both were es - were impervious to reason, he perse- an interest in investigating and challeng- sentially self-taught in vered in his quest to show that most, if ing paranormal claims. Soon after our magic, philosophy, sci- not all, paranormal claims cannot be first meeting, Martin published his classic ence, and other areas. 28 Volume 34, Issue 5 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SI Sept/Oct pgs_SI MJ 2010 7/22/10 4:41 PM Page 29 You can gain some insights into the ates from speed reading classes who made it clear that nothing that this range and impact of Martin’s productive claim to be reading 1,000 or more alleged psychic did had anything to do life by reading the many obituaries that words per minute are actually skipping with the paranormal. Soon after that, have appeared online. In the remaining over large chunks of text by exploiting Randi observed Geller at the offices of few lines at my disposal, I will discuss redundancy. When they are given text to Time magazine in New York. He, too, only a couple of my many personal sto- read from domains with which they are saw through Geller’s pretensions. ries involving this Renaissance man. unfamiliar, their reading drops to the I have always been interested in how same speed as those who have never In 1973, Randi phoned me from Port - productive individuals organize their taken a special course. land, Oregon. He was touring with Alice lives and manage their data. Soon after Cooper and asked me to travel from Martin’s operation for cataracts, I asked Eugene to Portland to meet him. While I him how he managed to read and review was in Portland, Randi reviewed our so many books while continuing his pro - experiences with Geller and suggested digious literary output and maintaining that we get together with Martin Gardner a colossal correspondence. Martin told and form a group to counter false claims me that, in most cases, he did not actu- of the paranormal. He suggested we call ally read the books he reviewed. Instead, he simply scanned the index, which pro- the group SIR (Sanity in Research), which vided all the information he needed for evoked the acronym SRI. his review. Randi and I soon afterwards spent a I was incredulous at first, but on sec- day with Martin at his home in Hastings- ond thought I realized that this was con- on-Hudson preparing a detailed docu- sistent with my research on information ment of the goals and hopes for our new theory and redundancy. I had already group. In 1976, SIR joined forces with discovered that I could scan the indices Paul Kurtz, who was already publishing of textbooks in statistics, perception, skeptical articles in The Humanist, which and cognitive psychology and know all I needed to know about how the book he edited at that time. The resulting orga- handled its topic. For example, by not- Martin not only wrote the seminal nization became known as CSICOP ing the topics the author listed and, textbook for the modern skeptical (now CSI), and the contemporary skepti- more importantly, the ones she did not, movement, but he was also central to cal movement was born. I could confidently guess her stance on the actual founding of the movement. Ray Hyman is emeritus professor of psychol- various issues. This was because I In December 1972, I was sent by the already knew these areas quite well. De fense Department to observe Uri ogy at the University of Oregon. An expert in Martin’s ability to exploit redundancy Geller and the researchers at the the psychology of self-deception, he is a induced me to conduct research on Stanford Research Institute (SRI). My founding fellow of CSICOP and founding speed reading. I discovered that gradu- report, which I shared with Martin, member of the CSICOP executive council. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September / October 2010 29 SI Sept/Oct pgs_SI MJ 2010 7/22/10 4:41 PM Page 30 MARTIN GARDNER admiration for the Alice stories by Lewis Martin Gardner Has Left Us Carroll. He pored over every sentence JAMES RANDI that Carroll had constructed and ex - tracted from them every sort of nuance he could, and of course he recorded his Where to begin? I’ve really no idea Arthur C. Clarke, and maybe a magician observations in writing—to the delight of where or exactly when I first met Martin colleague of mine, since his writings so his many, many fans over the years and Gardner. I believe our first meeting frequently touched on the sort of exper- around the globe. Martin’s spectrum of occurred in the offices of Scientific tise that only such a trio could summon interest was very broad. His coterie of American magazine more than six up. They were appropriately amazed and friends included major professional magi- decades ago, but it seems that I have edified when I assured them that this cians, mathematicians of every sort, always known him. He became such a paragon was actually a single person, a philosophers, a few scoundrels, and a suf- fixture in my life, such a dependable real human being who was quite as ficient variety of weirdos to round out his part of my world. I was so very accus- accomplished as he ap peared to be. perception of the world. As an atheist tomed to picking up the telephone to Another matter on which I was myself, I admit that I was somewhat sur- call him or answering a call from him queried from time to time was whether prised that this man was a deist. When I that always resulted in an improvement or not Martin actually had academic inquired about this apparent lapse of of my knowledge of the universe.