Viddler

Marion Downs - the “Mother of Audiology” - discovered that addressing infant hearing problems early is critical to their language development for their entire lives.

Largely due to her relentless pursuit in organizing and leading the medical and scientific community over 40 years, hearing testing in newborns is now ubiquitous in the United States, and has grown throughout the world.

At 95, she exercises for 1.5 hours a day, competes in the Senior Olympics as a tennis player against people 20 years younger. She went back to grad school at 35, after her children were in school, and stopped smoking packs per day at 55. She celebrated her 90th birthday by jumping out of a plane.