Followup and more on a great Bradley University grad and Braves fan...

The blog entry from a few weeks ago dealt with Joe Chamberlain - one of Peoria's finest natives and Bradley's finest and most accomplished graduates, even though many had not known of him.
He never really sought fame or success and the facts bear that out.

Here is that blog entry from December 1...

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2011/12/joseph-joe-miles-chamberlain-remarkable.html

Now Joe has been laid to rest in a local burial gardens - right next to Philip Jose Farmer. This is so ironic on a couple fronts....first because Farmer is a world renowned writer of science and so is Joe Chamberlain (more on that below) but Joe never received the media attention and widespread name recognition.
Farmer is famous for the science FICTION variety. Joe Chamberlain was world renowned in science FACT although not well known even in Peoria. The other big difference dealt with their spiritual beliefs...with Farmer not only being an outspoken atheist - but even notably hostile and ridiculing of anyone of faith and often debating people of faith by attacking them personally as superstitious and shallow-minded.
BUT Joe was quite different - and now is getting more written on him than ever during his life. Although Joe could debate any point he chose to quite well and was an expert on many phases of science - he was one of the most congenial, polite, and courteous - thus often complimenting anyone he might debate or discuss with yet provide a powerful argument.

The New York Times did a major piece on his passing..as did all the other New York papers..
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/science/space/joseph-m-chamberlain-dies-at-88-led-hayden-and-adler-planetariums.html

And so did the Boston Globe that also noted that Joe helped guide CBS' Mike Wallace when the network did a special series of shows back in the 1960's on the planets and solar system...
This story from the Boston Globe even pictures Joe with CBS' Mike Wallace...
http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-13/bostonglobe/30512730_1_planetariums-new-era-natural-history

But the real proof that finally someone has noticed is that Phil Luciano honored Joe this morning with a nice column on the front page, that I enjoyed.

Here is that piece by Phil Luciano ..even noting a little known story about a stolen ruby that Joe was involved in..
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x2023107345/Luciano-Peoria-native-had-true-star-qualities

Here are a couple more sources that detail the fantastic jewel heist at the museum and the story of how Joe retrieved the ruby...

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-05-02/news/18174328_1_carat-ruby-gem-magazine-writer
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ns4VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jxEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5088,364030&hl=en
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0cQiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OLcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=911,938250&hl=en

BTW - one source says..
"The heist was the subject of a 1975 movie, directed by Marvin Chomsky, called "Murph the Surf". The movie starred Robert Conrad, Burt Young, and Don Stroud (as Murphy)"...but unfortunately Joe must have been left on the cutting room floor!


I might point out that Luciano uses a few phrases that seem directly taken from the other sources - with minimal alterations in the words (read the NYT and Globe pieces and see..) but it's a pretty good column nonetheless.

Getting back to the point I made above - the Farmer was a writer of science fiction while Joe was a writer of science fact...one last little known thing about Joe Chamberlain was that he was also best-selling writer - although perhaps not on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer.
Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, when the world's interest in outer space and planets was piqued by the launches of Sputnik and American efforts to get a man into space...
Joe wrote and published a book that he was told would never sell.

Now, remember, this was 20 years before Carl Sagan and his PBS series "COSMOS".... and Joe was warned by publishers that although good science FICTION books with good stories about outer space would sell, BUT books that contained facts about outer space would be dry and uninteresting and would NOT sell.

But.... Joe proceeded to write and publish his book anyway and it became the biggest selling non-fiction science book of the race-for-space era of the late 1950's through 1960's.
The book is called "Planets, Stars and Space"..and copies of it can still be purchsed easily on ebay, Amazon, and other book re-sellers.

Here is a photo of the cover...
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Planets-Stars-and-Space-1962-Joseph-M-Chamberlain-/00/$(KGrHqF,!jME2HeCqLPYBNvuMV4E9Q~~_12.JPG

Note that unlike any other book you will find, Joe chose not to even place his own name as author on the front cover - that's just how modest and unassuming he was - preferring to shine a light on the title, the topic, and the American Museum rather than himself!

And although the proceeds of this book made Joe set for life - he also gave plenty of the proceeds to great causes - some of which he founded himself or helped found, such as...
The Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society
http://dps.aas.org/history/chamberlain_cruikshank_1999

The Committee on Planetary Science of the American Physical Society ..
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4211/ch9-7.htm

And American Astronautical Society...


In any listing you might find of great people who are graduates of Bradley University - you'll find names such as...

Robert H. Michel
General John M. Shalikashvili
Jack Brickhouse
Philip Jose Farmer
Jerry Hadley
David Horowitz
Chick Hearn
Charlie Steiner
Hersey Hawkins
etc...

BUT -- I find it odd that none of those listings mentions Joe Chamberlain, a man who through his own hard work, dedication, and giving has actually had a considerably MORE accomplished career and life than many, if not most, of the Bradley grads who are listed. But this would be just as Joe might have wanted it - that the only recognition he ever sought was from his family and loved ones, which all the more embellishes his overall success.