Famous Relatives

[skyline_123]

I spent a few days in New Orleans for a memorial service over the weekend and met some relatives for the first time. I found out that my second cousin is famous among the audio/video crew over at AVS forums and it got me thinking about other famous relatives I have. I believe my list is now up to a grand total of 3.

1) Alex2057, or as I've always known him: Uncle Oscar. He is probably most known for his great sense of humor, wire management skills, furniture refinishing skills, speaker modding and building, and host of other talents that would take up too much space on this page to list.

2) My grandfather Dr. James Fisher who made some breakthroughs back in the day with Erythropoetin. I can't actually say much about that because all that's over my head. Heck, it took my at least 10 tries before google even realized I was misspelling Erythropoetin.

3) My most recent discovery: Second cousin Art Sonneborn. He's got quite the home theater setup over at AVSforums. His website is ArtSonneborn.com

Get a load of this!

Anybody else have famous relatives?

 

[adwilk]

First on your list is staring into a fridge right now wondering whats going to happen to his cholesterol if he "accidentally" puts his index finger in frosting and can't find a paper towel to clean it.

Congrats on numbers two and three...

 

[Alex2507]

So that's what it feels like to have smoke blown up your ***. I don't get enough of that.

You've got your own claim to fame having built the ER18's.

I sure hope it wasn't Dr. Fisher's memorial service. If it was, please extend my condolences to your father and Lainey. Dr. Fisher was the chairman of the board of Tulane University's pharmacology department. That's a big deal. At the time I believe it was one of the top 10 medical schools in the world.

 

[Swerd]

Sean

You're famous for building the ER18s and for showing – once and for all – that painting speaker cabinets glossy black is NOT easier than veneering.

I'm certainly impressed by James Fisher, although I didn't know about him. He was the chairman of the Tulane Med School Pharmacology Dept. for nearly 30 years! At a top notch place like Tulane, that's really something. Did he recently pass away? If so, condolences, he certainly deserves the recognition.

Erythropoietin is a famous molecule itself. It's a small protein that acts as a hormone. It signals the bone marrow to make red blood cells. It's made by the kidneys, and that's how it was discovered, if I remember all this correctly. People with chronic kidney disease who need dialysis to live would become anemic (low red blood cell count) and require frequent blood transfusions. Erythropoietin, called Epo, fixed that problem, saving lots of lives.

Erythropoietin was one of the first, if not the very first, human protein to be made by recombinant genetic methods and become an approved drug. It became a big money maker for the drug company that made it (Amgen, I believe). In the 1980s, there was a prolonged fight (involving hundreds of lawyers, money, guns, and rusty razorblades) among several drug company over who had the rights to Epo.

Epo became the performance-enhancing drug-of-choice among athletes who did long distance or endurance races. It probably still is used for that today.

No one in my family is famous. I'm certainly not. That's why I hang around here. It's easy to fake being important on an internet forum .

 

[Midwesthonky]

No one in my family is famous. I'm certainly not. That's why I hang around here. It's easy to fake being important on an internet forum .

Wow, those are some lofty people to be related to. I'm not famous nor is anyone in my family. We have had some notorious family members like mob/organized crime.

Had one great uncle who sang opera and taught voice in Hollywood to many, many famous people. He wasn't famous but was the invisible person behind many a famous person.

If I stretch it out no more than 6 links, I'm probably related to Kevin Bacon.

 

[JohnA]

One I found was from my grandmother's side, one of the founding families sent from Spain to colonize Louisiana, they founded the city of New Iberia.

My grandfather was Hal Ambro and he was an animator for HB and Disney. He worked on most of the classics from both studios.

 

[strube]

Buffalo Bill is my first cousin, but obviously several generations removed. I don't know if that counts...

 

[its phillip]

No idea if I've got any famous relatives.

 

[j_garcia]

I've done my family tree pretty extensively. Nobody famous. Meaning, NO, I am not, nor am I related to, Jerry Garcia

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I'm as famous as it gets in my family...Pretty sad really.

 

[lsiberian]

One of my cousins started coca cola. But my family is far more known for infamy. I've got plenty of cousins who've made the front page.

 

[JohnA]

One of my cousins started coca cola. But my family is far more known for infamy. I've got plenty of cousins who've made the front page.

Then your cousin prob duked it out with my relative in the law suit with Coca Cola and Koke

 

[Alex2507]

Tulane Med School Pharmacology Dept.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[sawzalot]

My Cousin is Rhea Hughes from 610 WIP Sorts Radio/CSN Sportsnet TV, she is somewhat famous in the Philly area

 

[ErnieM]

Not me, but my wife's maiden name is Hancock and yes, she is related to the guy who's signature dominates the Declaration of Independence.

So - does that count???

 

[Matt34]

Nobody famous that I know about. I did grow up near where Johnny Carson and John Wayne were born.

 

[sparky77]

My last name is Hafner, and yes, that's my second cousin that plays for the Cleveland Indians, he's form Sykston, ND. I personally expected him to play pro basketball rather than baseball, but I guess he's a little too short for that, lol. And, the element Hafnium was supposedly named after a distant relative of mine, wasn't discovered by him, but named after him.

 

[skyline_123]

These responses are fascinating! Kevin Bacon, Buffalo Bill, Coca Cola, very interesting. How does one even know this stuff?

I sure hope it wasn't Dr. Fisher's memorial service. If it was, please extend my condolences to your father and Lainey. Dr. Fisher was the chairman of the board of Tulane University's pharmacology department. That's a big deal. At the time I believe it was one of the top 10 medical schools in the world.

Unfortunately Lainey passed away very unexpectedly.

Sean

You're famous for building the ER18s and for showing – once and for all – that painting speaker cabinets glossy black is NOT easier than veneering.

I'm certainly impressed by James Fisher, although I didn't know about him. He was the chairman of the Tulane Med School Pharmacology Dept. for nearly 30 years! At a top notch place like Tulane, that's really something. Did he recently pass away? If so, condolences, he certainly deserves the recognition.

Erythropoietin is a famous molecule itself. It's a small protein that acts as a hormone. It signals the bone marrow to make red blood cells. It's made by the kidneys, and that's how it was discovered, if I remember all this correctly. People with chronic kidney disease who need dialysis to live would become anemic (low red blood cell count) and require frequent blood transfusions. Erythropoietin, called Epo, fixed that problem, saving lots of lives.

Erythropoietin was one of the first, if not the very first, human protein to be made by recombinant genetic methods and become an approved drug. It became a big money maker for the drug company that made it (Amgen, I believe). In the 1980s, there was a prolonged fight (involving hundreds of lawyers, money, guns, and rusty razorblades) among several drug company over who had the rights to Epo.

Epo became the performance-enhancing drug-of-choice among athletes who did long distance or endurance races. It probably still is used for that today.

No one in my family is famous. I'm certainly not. That's why I hang around here. It's easy to fake being important on an internet forum .

I'm very flattered to hear you say that but you have more to do with the ER18's that I did. I simply glued some wood together and struggled to slap some paint on them. You've been very helpful in answering everyone's technical questions very quickly.

It wasn't able to find any information on it but there was an experiment with EPO that was conducted in space. I think my grandfather was heavily involved in organizing all that.

 

[majorloser]

My family has been in this country since the early 1700's and in all that time we haven't done jack. Mostly farmers, miners and rail workers from Virginia, later West Virginia. From both my mother's and fathers sides of the family.

I've got ancestors that have fought in the Revolutionary War, The Civil War (both sides) and most every conflict the USA has been involved. Had a great, great grandfather who was a major in the Union army who was shot in the back by his cousin in the Confederate army (don't mess with those hillbilly rebels).

I'm the last male on my fathers side and I have no kids. It ends with me

 

[GO-NAD!]

I've been told that we're related, on my mother's side, to one of Peter Easton's men:

Eastwaters : Newfoundland & Labrador's Maritime Heritage