I first met Jerry Wiesner in the late 1970's, shortly before he stepped down as President of MIT. Two years later, I visited him in the hospital after he had undergone heart surgery and asked him why he had chosen to retire when he did. He responded by offering a memorable metaphor: he equated the leadership of an institution with a force on a see-saw. Sometimes, he claimed, you tip the see-saw so far in one direction that the institution requires someone else to step in to equalize the situation. I always wanted to have a more specific conversation with JBW about this metaphor.

At the time of my visit, Jerry was still weak from surgery and I did not want to tire him, but I had one other pressing question: Would he continue his efforts to realize a media laboratory at MIT? He responded that sometimes you get into something so far that you cannot pull out.

Jerry's vision of a "media laboratory" began many years ago, during his leadership of MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. As technology advanced, his vision developed and grew in its sophistication, scope, and clarity of mission. Jerry worked tirelessly and called in many hard-earned favors to help build a unique, first-class facility which brings together the best minds and state-of-the-art equipment. Through my collaborations with Richard Leacock as well as in my faculty position at the Media Laboratory, I have enjoyed the benefits of Jerry's vision of communication and the pro-active ways in which he sought to bring science and the arts into closer harmony.

"I started out thinking I was going to be a mathematician or a physicist or somehow involved in electronics, and I had a lot of trouble making up my mind until I got to thermodynamics in the physics department, and then I decided I was going to be a communications engineer and a mathematician."

No one can take a meaningful action in the world without leaving some sort of evidence behind. Jerry Wiesner's actions and achievements have left a trail of many scattered clues which provide glimpses into the mind of this influential man. Our approach to understanding Jerry's story was to gather together many of the scattered sources which describe salient aspects of his life and times, and to shape these story fragments into an information landscape which the curious investigator can navigate and explore.

Also, you may click on an element
below to enter or return to the
Hyper-Portrait at a particular period
of time or with a particular person.

Rather than laying out our story materials in a single-stream or linear presentation, the "Hyper-Portrait" form allows us to build an understanding of context in various ways. The media pieces and texts which serve as the soul of this portrait are linked into a "structured context." This context becomes visible through an interface which invites our audience to pro-actively explore and select particular elements of interest. The individual explorer is also invited to add to and exchange views with the larger society of audience through our "chat pages."

The primary structure for the Hyper-Portrait, as we discover it in the interface, includes a division of Jerry's life into five periods: "The Early Years," "Up the Ladder at MIT," "The Washington Years," "Governance at MIT" and "The Later Years." These broad categories allow us to access reflections on his activities, knowledge, and influence in a loosely chronological fashion. The interface groups the voices of colleagues and friends in proximity to represented time periods. Finally, the interface provides us with a framework to contemplate specific themes which we associate with Jerry's diverse activities.

JBW grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, a "company town" which was more or less owned by Henry Ford. His parents, Ida and Joseph, were first-generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe; they ran a profitable dry goods store. His father was well-traveled and, according to Jerry's younger sister Edna Wiesner McNeil, read constantly.

In the interests of family heritage, Ida took Jerry and Edna on a three-month tour in Europe. They returned to Dearborn shortly before Black Tuesday, which signaled the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. Edna remembers that the family did not seem to lack for anything during the Depression. However, she also remembers that many people in town ran up debts at their store, and her father used to explain to the children that if wealth were more equally distributed, people would not need to run up such debts. We can only suspect the long-term effects that these moments had on Jerry's concern for the human condition.

JBW's formative years at the University of Michigan introduced him to the formal study of electronic circuits and acoustics. As Associate Director of the university's radio station, JBW had the opportunity to experiment with new techniques in sound recording: in 1939, he engineered a live broadcast of a lecture given by Archibald MacLeish, the then-librarian of Congress. In 1940, a recently-married JBW (and his wife Laya) moved to Washington to become recording engineer at the Library of Congress.

While Jerry Wiesner's memoirs provide a rich introduction to his early knowledge of weapons systems, a scene from the 1960 documentary, "The Thinking Machine" (made by CBS to mark MIT's 100th Anniversary) reveals something of Jerry as a public spokesperson for science research. In the film actor David Wayne plays the role of interlocutor as Jerry Wiesner, the friendly and affable scientist, explains the ways in which computer systems were being programmed to "think."

Interviews with contemporary colleagues Amar Bose, Noam Chomsky,Jerome Lettvin, Louis Smullin, Ted Saad and others bring the laboratory to life with memories of specific moments.

In 1961, JBW accepted the position of Science Advisor to President John F. Kennedy and moved to Washington. His tireless efforts to inform the President about science and to achieve a what became the first Nuclear Test Ban Treaty are achievements that had a profound and lasting effect on our world. JBW's memoirs and letters, insights from science journalist Victor McElheny, and reminiscences by collegue Marcus Raskin, and assistant Ellie Conners give us a glimpse into these years.

"Ours in particular, is the quest for learning, the nurture of learning, the transmission of learning. No doctrine, no orthodoxy, no conventional discipline or gust of political passion can be allowed to divert us from this purpose."

In 1965, Howard Johnson became president of MIT and asked Jerry to serve as Provost. There are many voices who remember the years which followed. In particular, the student unrest in the fall of 1968 bifurcated the administration from the student constituency, which also wanted its voice heard. Through it all, as footage from Richard Leacock's November Actions and reminiscences by Paul and Pricilla Gray, Carolla Eisenberg, Benjamin Snyder, Kathryn Willmore and others reveal, JBW sought to listen and help steer the teeming and conflicting interests to a consensus whereby the institution could survive.

Internationally, the 1980's will be remembered for the winding-down of the Cold War. We will probably never know precisely how influential Jerry was in this process but certainly his was a significant voice. As the Russian scientist Roald Sagdeev attests, the Soviet scientists were awed by the honesty and directness of this man who had already had influence and a direct line to President Kennedy. During these years, JBW extended his influence by serving on the boards of many foundations which were actively pursuing programs to help formulate world security.

The final, most difficult and heroic task of our subject's life is also the most personal. Following a severe stroke, JBW's random walk brought him back to moments of earlier research and basic leaning.