George Boole (1810-1864), at age 12, was apprenticed to a kindly bookseller. When not working or running errands, George was allowed to browse among the stacks. He achieved such a good "boostack" education -- including Latin, Greek, and mathematics -- that young George became a Master in a private school at age 16.

At age 20, George founded his own school.

Later, his mathematical papers earned him the post of Professor of Mathematics at the University of Dublin (Ireland), although he'd had no formal education since age 12.

There he ALGEBRAIZED differential equations and ALGEBRAIZEDLOGIC, developing the system now used for COMPUTER LOGIC CIRCUITS.

Remembering his own origins, Boole delivered a free weekly lecture for working men.

One rainy night, failing to get a horse-cab, Boole walked across Dublin. Finding the working men waiting for him, Boole ashiver lectured for over an hour.

Boole died of pneumonia three days later.

He was survived by a young wife -- daughter of Sir George Everest (1770-1866), Surveyor General of India, for whom Mt. Everest was named -- to try to explain his works of logic.

But his work has been seriously distorted, so that his principal biographer wrote, "Boole's algebra is not Boolean Algebra."