RIP, Stephen Hawking
Scientist, lover, adventurer, cultural icon – there’s never been anyone quite like Stephen Hawking
‘I was completely under his spell, bewitched by his grey-blue eyes’
HE WAS the rock star of the science world, a genius in a doomed body whose mind flew free to the darkest reaches of the universe, even though he was barely able to flex a finger. Thanks to Stephen Hawking, the world knows a lot more about the mysteries of space and the origins of the universe.
He captured the imagination of millions by turning unfathomable phenomena into dinner-table conversation. Yet one of the most astonishing things about him is that he had a career at all. Diagnosed as a student with motor neurone disease – the same condition that killed Bok legend Joost van der Westhuizen – he was given just 14 months to live.
But he defied medical science by packing in another 55 years, until he finally succumbed to the disease that had robbed him of his voice and reduced his body to a twisted bag of bones in a wheelchair.
By the end, all that connected the brilliant astrophysicist to the outside world were a few centimetres of frayed nerve in his cheek.
And when news that he’d died at the age of 76 emerged, it was met with a torrent of tributes.
“Not since Albert Einstein has a scientist so endeared himself to tens of millions of people around the world,” said Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York.
“His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring,” the US space body Nasa tweeted. “May you keep flying like a superman in microgravity.”
Hawking’s most famous achievement was his book A Brief History of Time, a layman’s guide to cosmology which he wrote to raise funds for his kids’ education and his mounting medical costs. It was a triumph, selling more than 10 million copies – even though Hawking dryly described it as “the most popular book never read”. He went on to become the leader in exploring gravity and, through a series of calculations too complicated for mere mortals to understand, discovered black holes weren’t really black at all.
“In fact, he found, they would eventually fizzle, leaking radiation and particles, and finally explode and disappear over the eons,” The New York Times said.
Yet there was a lot more to Hawking than a brilliant brain and a debilitating disease: he was an unlikely ladies’ man, an avid adventurer, an icon of pop culture and the inspiration behind an Oscar- winning movie.
AS A schoolboy Hawking was considered smart but not exceptional. Yet he had a passionate love of maths and science that earned him a place at England’s prestigious Oxford University. Once there he barely attended lectures and devoted himself to his studies for just an hour a day, saying he found the work “ridiculously easy”.
It was during these years the first ominous signs of illness appeared. He became clumsy, his speech slurred. In his final year at the university he tumbled down the stairs and was told by a doctor to lay off the beer.
The symptoms continued and after he enrolled at Cambridge University for his postgrad degree he underwent a series of tests. The diagnosis was devastating: he had motor neurone disease and doctors gave him less than two years to live.
The news sent him spiralling into depression, but miraculously the disease progressed more slowly than expected. The one consolation was that his mind was unaffected, a fact that would change the course of his life – and of history.
It was his mind that entranced Jane Wilde, a linguistics student he met at university. “I was completely under his spell, bewitched by his clear blue-grey eyes and the broad dimpled smile,” she says.
They were married for 30 years and had three children, Robert, Lucy and Timothy. Hawking’s love affair with Jane was brought to the silver screen in 2014’s The Theory of Everything, which won Eddie Redmayne a best actor Oscar.
Marriage, Hawking once said, “gave me something to live for”. He consulted on the set of the movie and approved of it in general – although he had this to
say of Redmayne: “Unfortunately Eddie didn’t inherit my good looks.”
HAWKING might have defied medical science but the disease still ravaged his body. By 1974 he could no longer feed himself or get in and out of bed, and his situation worsened when he had a life-saving tracheotomy that robbed him of his speech.
He was fitted with the speech synthesiser that became his trademark in the years that followed. His only complaint, he lamented, was that it bestowed him with an American accent.
But the phalanx of nurses and carers called in to help care for him put a fatal strain on his marriage. “They whispered about us and undermined me,” Jane said. “The truth was, there were four partners in our marriage: Stephen and me, motor neurone disease and physics.”
The end of his marriage was messy and difficult, the Telegraph reports. He announced he was leaving Jane so he could be with one of his nurses, Elaine Mason – who in turn was accused of marrying him “so she could bask in the reflected glory of his celebrity”.
The relationship was dogged by scandal. In 2004 police questioned the couple after Hawking landed up in hospital with a broken wrist, black eyes and facial cuts. The scientist denied his wife had anything to do with his injuries, insisting he’d simply fallen out of his wheelchair.
The couple divorced in 2006 but he continued to seek out the company of women and was seen at a California swingers’ club. Once asked what he thought about most, Hawking answered, “Women. They are a complete mystery.”
His unquenchable thirst for life extended to other areas too. He visited every continent, including Antarctica, ventured down a mine shaft and celebrated his 60th birthday in a hot-air balloon. Hawking’s explanation for why he took such risks was simple: “I want to show that people need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they aren’t disabled in spirit.”
He was a cultural icon too and had cameo TV roles in animated series The Simpsons, comedy series The Big Bang Theory and sci-fi series Star Trek: The Next Generation, as a hologram of himself.
In a statement after their father’s death his kids paid tribute to him, saying “his courage, persistence and humour inspired people across the world”.
But perhaps the last word should come from Hawking himself. “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” he said. “And howLEFT: ever difficult life may seem, there’s always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”