By the 1950s, he had become an expert on a rare breed of butterflies. The professor was more unique than his subject of study. He was one of the few biologists that achieved rock-star status.
Paul Ehrlich, who died last week at the age of 93, was a doomsayer who was proven wrong. He was a biology professor at Stanford University, whose fame went beyond the classroom.
Though he was born in middle-class circumstances in Philadelphia, Ehrlich’s work focused on the wretched of the earth. His father was a shirt salesman and his mother was a teacher of classics.
