11 Facts About Don Herbert

Don Herbert produced many short video programs about science and authored several popular books about science for children.

Don Herbert later joined the United States Army Air Forces, took pilot training, and became a B-24 bomber pilot who flew 56 combat missions from Italy with the 767th Bomb Squadron, 461st Bomb Group of the Fifteenth Air Force.

When Don Herbert was discharged in 1945 he was a Captain and had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters.

Don Herbert's idea was accepted by Chicago NBC station WNBQ and the series Watch Mr Wizard premiered on March 3,1951.

In 1969, Don Herbert opened a Mr Wizard Science Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts; the center no longer exists.

In 1982, Don Herbert was a guest on the first episode of Late Night with David Letterman.

In 1983, Don Herbert developed Mr Wizard's World, a faster-paced version of his show that aired three times per week on the cable channel Nickelodeon.

In 1993, children's science show Beakman's World paid homage to Herbert by naming its two penguin puppet characters "Don" and "Herb" after him.

In 1994, Don Herbert developed another new series of 15-minute spots called Teacher to Teacher with Mr Wizard.

Don Herbert died on June 12,2007, of multiple myeloma at his home in Bell Canyon, California.

Five months after Don Herbert died, MythBusters aired a two-hour episode entitled "Special Super-sized Myths" "Dedicated to Mr Wizard".