Impressive Baby Boomers on TIME's "100 Most Influential"
By Cheryl Harbour

Yes, President Donald Trump is on the list. So is Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Oprah Winfrey. They are baby boomers everyone recognizes. But TIME dug deeper this year and also selected people not necessarily based on their long list of milestones but because their “time, in our estimation, is now.”

Under that definition, the list definitely sought to include more young people (45 on the list are under 40 – which, of course, means 55 are over 40) and diverse (45 on the list are women). But some lesser known among the baby boomers are worth celebrating as Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, Icons and Titans.

Our "cover" Pioneer is Peggy Whitson (born 1960), former NASA Chief Astronaut and the first female commander of the International Space Station. She's a ground-breaker in other ways: She holds the record for the most space walks by a woman and broke the record for the most total days in space by either a man or woman.

Carl June (born 1953) has successfully developed T-cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. The customized t-cells designed by June and his team help give a patient's immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer. Tests on the therapies he's developed have resulted in remission and positive outcomes for the test patients and show promise for treating leukemia and other types of cancer, including brain, lung, ovary, pancreas, and prostate.

Ann Mckee (born 1953) studies Alzheimer’s and is one of the leading experts on CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) – the condition affecting so many pro football players and hockey players.

In the Artists category, two familiar baby boomers are Guillermo del Toro (born 1964) whose movie "The Shape of Water" won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Roseanne Barr, whose TV show from 1988-1998 is now attracting fans in a revival where she plays a "working-class domestic goddess."

Broadcast journalist and NBC morning television personality Hoda Kotb (born 1964) was selected in TIME's Leaders group, and so was another TV commentator, Sean Hannitty (born (1961) who appears on the Fox News Network.

Another Leader is Kenneth Frazier (born 1954), Chairman and CEO of Merck.  Frazier is credited with directing Merck to increase investments in new lifesaving treatments. He is the first African-American to lead a major pharmaceutical company.

Jeff Bezos (born 1964), CEO of Amazon appears in the Titans category along with Oprah Winfrey (born 1954).

We're not sure how TIME defined "Icons" - but if it means a person who represents something beyond themselves - we might suggest baby boomers such as opera star Renee Fleming (born 1959), Bill Gates (born 1955) ,and Ellen Degeneres (born 1958).

A favorite quote from Ellen Degeneres: “My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is.”




Comments

Be the first to commment on this article.

Post a Comment