Star Trek's James Doohan would've turned 100 today

I got to meet James Doohan outside of a convention setting many years ago. A very nice caring man with perhaps a little too much weighing on him at the time. I am glad that he was able to see before he passed that he touched many lives for the better. Many of the TOS cast inspired people to take on careers in medicine, science, and engineering to name a few fields. To the point that maybe ST accelerated the development of technology.

I met him at a convention in Orlando and he could not have been nicer. While George Takei was patting himself on the back all the time and promoting himself as the next tv series/movie captain, James Doohan was as gracious as possible. He didn't charge a thing to sign his autograph. He wasn't there selling anything. He was just there to enjoy the fans. I think he enjoyed it more than we did. He would ask us questions and seem genuinely interested, laughed with us. I contrast that with another convention where the Star Trek TNG, Voyager and DS9 actors were there basically to sell autographed photos with zero interaction. Marina Sirtis was particularly egregious in that respect. She barely acknowledge each fan as she autographed the overpriced photo. Left a bad taste.