Please Note: I have not updated for a while so there are two posts for today. This is the first.
I have been researching our fine Antram roots and as we knew, they run pretty deep in North America. While I was researching, I ran across an Antrim (on his mother's side) who had also done an incredible job of researching the family. In fact, he wrote a book about it;
An Antrim Family History. So this is the second book on the American Antrams or in his case, Antrims, the first being the one by Harriet Antram. All are related anyway. He co-wrote the book with his mother, Ethel Antrim Bird.
He was kind enough to autograph and send me one of his two remaining copies. Other copies of the book have been filed in the Library of Congress, Rutgers University, and other prestigious institutions. Which sounds like quite an accomplishment unless you know a little more about the author.
Robert Byron Bird, Professor Emeritus of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is better known for his textbooks on Chemistry and the Japanese language .
And... he's a knight of the Netherlands. He was granted Knighthood into the Order of Oranje Nassau by Robert de Leeuw, consul general of the Netherlands in Chicago on Behalf of Queen Beatrix. (
http://www.news.wisc.edu/9195) Among his other accomplishments:
- Fulbright Fellow and later a Lecturer and Guggenheim Fellow in the Netherlands
- Fulbright Lecturer in Japan
- Taught elementary Dutch informally, has co-authored two college Dutch readers, and was co-founder of the Dutch Club of Madison
- Elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Received honorary doctorates from Lehigh University, Washington University, Technische Hogeschool (Delft, Holland), and Clarkson College of Technology
- Member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Otto Laporte Award Recipient
- One of the founders of the Rheology Research Center
- Benjamin Smith Reynolds Award for outstanding teaching of engineering students
- Has an award named for him: The Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication
- He has also been an avid hiker and canoeist and is 82 years old and signs his e-mails "Bob."
He went out into the aftermath of an ice storm recently to take his book to the post office so that I could add it to the Antram collection for my sons.
I find I can call him naught but Sir Robert.
File this under lessons learned. Turns out that some doctor's offices (who shall remain nameless) do not check the insurance before sending out lab work. This results in rather large bills which are the responsibility of the insured. Meaning us. At 100%.
