Schopenhauer’s astronomical conceit sums up the colorful, mercurial—indeed, meteoric—Norwood Russell Hanson. Hanson was a large, athletic man who excelled at track, boxing, and shotput—anything but your typical mousy, bespectacled academic. Hanson had a booming voice, a sharp tongue, and a wealth of charisma. He served in the Marines as a fighter pilot in WWII, achieving fame as “the Flying Professor” during his later academic career. Hanson looked the part of the indomitable survivor, having lived through the U.S.S. Franklin disaster in the Pacific theater of WWII (the largest naval disaster in U.S. history) and three plane crashes. Hanson shook up the academic world with his incisive philosophical analysis and evangelism for the complementarity of history and philosophy of science. Additionally, “the irreverent and fascinating Norwood Russell Hanson” displayed the same hot-pilot’s devil-may-care attitude for the sacred cows of American life, getting in political hot water for dashing off fiery letters to the editor (and to university administrators) about McCarthyism, religion, loyalty oaths, and free speech.