Irish-born educator John Robert Gregg (1867-1948) is best known for inventing the system of shorthand writing that bears his name. His phonetic system became the dominant method in the United States and is still in use today, although it has largely been supplanted by computers and word processors.

John Robert Gregg was born in a small town in Ireland on June 17, 1867. He was the youngest of five children born to Robert and Margaret Gregg, who were Presbyterians and strict disciplinarians. The senior Gregg, a worker for the railroad, had an inventive, inquiring mind, and two of his children were considered brilliant. Great things were expected of the youngest Gregg when he started school at the age of five. However, on his second day at school, his teacher grew so angry at Gregg's whispering with a schoolmate that he "crashed the children's heads together so violently that he severely...