Mary Temple Grandin

By: Francesca 

She is ruthless, strong, and AMAZING... you guessed it Mary Temple Grandin. But why are we going to talk about her. I bet you're asking yourself. Well I am guessing that is what you are thinking well that is going to be my job. First, I am going to tell you about her early life and that is when it all started. Second, I will tell you about her school life and how hard it all was finally what she is known for. Sit back and enjoy her story. 

And now for her early life :)Mary was born to a wealthy family on August 29th, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was born with autism and did not speak until she was 2 and a half. Her mom was an actress & a singer & her dad was a real estate agent they got divorced when Mary was 15. Eustacia Purves (now Cutler) was her mom and her dad were Richard McCurdy Grandin. 

Now for her school life she was home schooled until she was 13 “Grandin attended Beaver Country Day School from 7th to 9th grade. She was expelled at the age of 14 for throwing a book at another student who had taunted her. Mary has described herself as the "nerdy kid" whom everyone ridiculed. She has described occasions when she walked down the hallways and her fellow students would taunt her by saying "tape recorder" because of her habit of repetitive speech. “Grandin states, "I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt.” 

The year after her expulsion, Grandin's parents divorced. Grandin's mother remarried three years later to Ben Cutler, a New York saxophonist. Arizona ranch of Ben Cutler's sister, Ann, and this would be a formative experience towards her subsequent career interest. 

Following her expulsion from Beaver Country Day School (reports vary on the actual name of the school Grandin was expelled from, with Grandin herself noting it to be Cherry Falls Girls' School in her first book, Emergence: Labelled Autistic), Grandin's mother placed her in Mountain Country School (now known as Hampshire Country School), a private boarding school in Rindge, New Hampshire, for children with behavioral problems. It was here that Grandin met William Carlock, a science teacher who had worked for NASA, who would become her mentor and help significantly towards building up her self-confidence. 

It was Carlock who gave Grandin the idea to build herself a hug box (referred to as a "squeeze machine") when she returned from her aunt's farm in Arizona in her senior year of high school. Franklin Pierce College, it was Carlock who suggested that Grandin undertake scientific experiments to evaluate the efficacy of the device. 

Temples honors are incredible she is in the women's hall of fame and a lot more here are some. In 2010, Grandin was named in the Time 100 list of the one hundred most influential people in the world in the "Heroes" category. In 2011, she received a Double Helix Medal. She has received honorary degrees from many universities including McGill University in Canada (1999), and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (2009), Carnegie Mellon University in the United States (2012), and Emory University (2016). In 2015, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication In 2012, Grandin was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame. 

She has been through a lot and some rough times and good ones to, but she never quite and always overcame all her fears and problems and won and that is someone I would be and be happy to be her. She is still over coming her problems and beating them all and being the kind wonder and loving person, you want to be around all the while. 

Sources:  

1.“Temple Grandin.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin. 

2.Bing, Microsoft, www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube%2Bted%2Btalk%2Btemple%2Bgrandin%2Babout%2Bher%2Bwork&&view=detail&mid=FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780&FORM. 

3.Bing, Microsoft, www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube%2Bted%2Btalk%2Btemple%2Bgrandin%2Babout%2Bher%2Bwork&&view=detail&mid=FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780&FORM 

4.“Temple Grandin.” C, www.c-span.org/person/?templegrandin. 

Bing, Microsoft, www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube%2Bted%2Btalk%2Btemple%2Bgrandin%2Babout%2Bher%2Bwork&&view=detail&mid=FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780FD29FBD3EDEB995E8780&FORM 

5.“An Interview With Dr. Temple Grandin.” Life Tinted Blue, web.archive.org/web/20131012095025/http://lifetintedblue.com/an-interview-with-dr-temple-grandin/.