Below is a list of various people who have had a significant
impact on the world, through their understanding of meaning,
and it's role in their life. If you have an addition to the
list, please e-mail our webmaster (webmaster@meaning.ca)
with as many details as you can provide.
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David Suzuki
Canadian science-broadcaster and environmental activist.
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Albert
Schweitzer
Albert was a German theologian, musician, philosopher, and
physician. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
Alfred
Adler
Alfred Adler originated the ideas which, to a large extent,
have been incorporated in the mainstream of present-day theory
and practice of psychology and psychopathology.
Alfred
Nobel
Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer and the inventor of
dynamite. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to
institute the Nobel Prizes.
Archbihop
Desmond Tutu
South African cleric, was first elected and ordained black
South African Anglican Archbishop. An anti-apartheid activist,
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Aung
San Suu Kyi
Suu Kyi is the current elected Prime
Minister of Myanmar (Burma), however the former ruling military
government refused to release power, and placed her under
house arrest. Since her first arrest in 1989, she has continually
been aressted and released. She is currently the only imprisoned
Nobel Laurate.
Billy
Graham
Billy Graham is an American Christian evangelist who has preached
the message of Christianity around the world, reaching live
audiences of 210 million people in 185 countries.
Bono
(Paul Hewson)
Irish rockstar, lead singer in popular band U2. He has dedicated
himself to various causes, including the "Troubles"
in Northern Ireland, enviromental issues (with GreenPeace),
politcal issues (with Amnesty International), and the problems
in Africa (with the ONE campaign, and DATA, groups he helped
found).
Corrie
ten Boom
Corrie was able to rescue many Jews from certain death at
the hands of the Nazi SS during the Holocaust.
His
Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama
The supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism and the head of the Exiled
Government of Tibet in India. His life work has been working
for Tibetan independance and teaching Buddhist thought, as
well as promoting understanding and unity.
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged in the concentration camp at
Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945, one of four members of
his immediate family to die at the hands of the Nazi regime.
He was a vocal anti-Nazi commentator, and has since become
one of the most read theologians of the 20th century.
Florence
Nightingale
Florence Nightingale, who came to be known as The Lady with
the Lamp, was the pioneer of modern nursing.
Helen
Keller
Keller was a deaf-blind American author, activist and lecturer.
Henri
Nouwen
A dutch Priest and author, after
decades of teaching, he took a job as the pastor of a L'Arche
community called "Daybreak", a place where developmentally
challenged people live in community with care-givers.
Jesus
Christ
Jesus is the most influential person in human history. He
came to this world for a single purpose -- to die on the cross
in order to save the world from its self-destructive path.
Joanne
(Jo, JK) Rowling, OBE
An English children's fiction writer and creator of the
Harry Potter Series. She went from impoverished single-mother,
to multi-million selling billionaire.
John
Marks Templeton
Sir John Marks Templeton is a highly successful pioneer of
globally diversified mutual funds, becoming a billionaire.
He established the John Templeton Foundation.
Linus Pauling
Pauling was an American physical chemist, widely regarded
as the premier chemist of the twentieth century.
Ludwig
Von Beethoven
Beethoven is widely regarded as one of the greatest of composers.
Madame
Curie
Marie Curie opened up the science of radioactivity, and is
best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium
and radium. She also was the first person to win two Nobel
prizes.
Mahatma
Ghandi
Gandhi was a national icon who led the non-violent struggle
for India's independence from British colonial rule, empowered
by tens of millions of common Indians.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
King is one of the most significant leaders in U.S. history
and in the modern history of non-violence, and is considered
a hero, peacemaker and martyr by many people around the world.
Mother
Teresa
Mother Teresa was an Albanian Catholic nun who founded the
Missionaries of Charity. Her work among the poor of Kolkata
(Calcutta) made her one of the world's most famous people,
and it is widely expected she will quickly be canonized.
Nelson
Mandela
Mandela was the first democratically elected President of
South Africa, having previously been a prominent anti-apartheid
activist there.
Paul
Erdõs
He was an immensely prolific Hungarian mathematician who,
with hundreds of collaborators, worked on problems in combinatorics,
graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation
theory, set theory and probability theory.
Paul
Rusesabagina
He was a moderate Hutu in Rawanda during the 1994 Genocide.
Using his connections and position as acting Manager of the
Mille Collines Hotel, he managed to shelter over 1,260 Tutsis
and moderate Hutus within the hotel's compound.
Dr
Stephen Hawking
Dr Hawking is one of the leading physicists in the world today.
Over a career of nearly 50 years, he has pioneered numerous
ideas, many of which have changed the way we see the universe.
And all this while living with severe ALS, being quadripelegic,
and unable to speak without a computer, since 1985.
Tony Dungy
Coach Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to the 2007 Superbowl, becoming the first African-American head coach to do so. Since his son's death in 2005, he has actively befriended and supported other grieving parents.
Viktor
Frankl
Frankl was the founder of logotherapy and Existential Analysis,
the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy. His
book Man's Search for Meaning chronicles his experiences as
a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic
method of finding a reason to live. |