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The Un-Comfort Zone II by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. My Lunch with a Movie Star There are philosophers who believe one thing pushes another, which pushes another, which pushes another. A but- terfly flaps its wings in China, and a few weeks later it's a twister in Kansas. One of them happened back in 1958, when a cocksure young man of 33 was just hitting his stride. He was the highest paid actor in Hollywood with the top-rated television show in America, when a little old doctor in Africa gave him a portentous push. It wasn't so much a push, but rather a steady gaze, a few choice words, and the example of his actions. The television show was Wyatt Earp , the actor was Hugh O'Brian, and the doc- tor: Albert Schweitzer. Today, six decades later, two generations have reached adulthood without ever having seen an episode of Wyatt Earp or heard of Dr. Schweitzer. Hugh O'Brian passed away in 2016, at the age of 91; and Dr. Schweitzer died at age 90 in 1965 - yet 10,000 high school students are moved by their message every year. On May 9, 1993, I had the opportunity to spend the day with Hugh O'Brian when he met Rhena Schweitzer Miller, the daughter of Albert Schweitzer, for the first time. The Georgia chapter of the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) asked me to write an article about their meeting for publication. At the hotel where a HOBY conference was taking place, we were shown to a meeting room where Mrs. Miller was waiting. Schweitzer's daughter, then in her 70s, had come to witness one of the 90 youth leadership seminars held annually, which were inspired by her father. The completely volunteer-operated HOBY seminars are geared to teach high school tenth graders the Free Enterprise System, while at the same time encouraging their leadership skills to emerge. This goal is resolutely stated in HOBY's motto: Motivating Tomorrow's Leaders Today . The students attend several panels made of local business leaders. These are followed by intensive discussion sessions led by the students themselves. They also participate in a variety of activities and games designed to elicit latent leadership abilities. Over lunch, Mr. O'Brian and Mrs. Miller reminisced about her father's work. Albert Schweitzer built a hospital in Gabon, and brought healthcare to thousands while attracting the world's attention to the needs and problems of Africa. During this conversation, O'Brian shared with me how his journey to inspire teenagers began. In 1958, partly at the suggestion of a friend and partly out of curiosity, he ventured into the jungle of Africa to visit the clinic of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Schweitzer. After a long flight in a primitive bush plane, and an even longer ride in a canoe paddled up river, he finally arrived. The TV action hero, who was accustomed to the finest Tinseltown could offer, was assigned his mosquito-netted cot and promptly put to work building baby cribs. At the end of the first long day, he was summoned to Schweitzer's quarters. The hour was late and he was exhausted, but the 83-year-old missionary wanted to talk. O'Brian told me an interpreter was brought in, and as the old man spoke, "I looked into penetrating eyes which could see inside me all the way down to the bottom of my feet." Dr. Schweitzer said many things, but etched into the television star's memory were these words: "You are the first young man from the United States who has come to see me. This is good, because the United States is the only country that has the strength to take a leadership role in bringing peace to the world." The words which most hit home with O'Brian however, were these: "The most important thing about education is to teach young people to think for themselves." On hearing this, O'Brian told me he felt God was speaking to him through Schweitzer. Ten days later, after laboring hard in the humid jungle hospital and observing the ever striving doctor, it was time to go. Schweitzer joined him on the river bank as he was getting into the canoe saying, "Never let the world rob you of your enthu- siasm." Then Schweitzer looked him in the eye one last time and posed the rhetorical question, "What are you going to do with this experience?" O'Brian had plenty of time to ponder this. He was left alone with his thoughts for the 48 hours it took him to travel back to Los Angeles. He told me he wanted to use his notoriety to make a difference, and he wanted to accentuate the positive instead of the negative. He explained the trend of the 1950s was to send juvenile delinquents to summer camp, while the kids who were trying to do the right thing were being ignored. He said, "I wanted to bring together those kids who wanted to be part of the solution and not part of the problem; so that they were no longer oddballs, but part of a majority." The two mes- sages he wanted to spread were: "The world does not owe you a living." and "Profit is not a dirty word." Within two weeks of returning from Africa, he put together his first seminar. He gathered 25 tenth graders from the local school, Boy's Club, and YMCA. He said tenth grade was his choice because, "That was the year when I first decided to fish or cut bait with my own life." He cal led his doctor, lawyer, accountant, and a friend who was a teacher. Hydraulic-Pneumatic tools in stock. Sizes 1” to 20”. SALE Mention this ad and receive sales discount. Model 113HD All Hydraulic Sizes 1"-13" 2547 W Success Way Emmett, ID 83617 (208) 365-3492 • Fax: (208) 365-3792 rauchmfg.com rauchmfg@frontiernet.net 28 JANUARY 2018 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Wilson cont’d on page 52.