Charles Stark Draper is best known for his work on gyroscopic instruments and other navigation systems for sea, air, and space craft. He was born on October 2, 1901, in Windsor, Missouri. After high school, he attended the University of Missouri for two years before transferring to the psychology program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1919. After his graduation from Stanford with a bachelor's degree in psychology, Draper made a decision that changed the course of his life: he agreed to drive to Boston with a friend who planned to enroll at Harvard. As the two young men drove through Cambridge, Massachusetts, the scenic view from the road near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) caught Draper's attention, and he convinced his friend to stop for a better look. Several hours later, Draper emerged from the school's campus having enrolled in its electrochemistry program.

Draper continued as a...