Who is Benjamin Spock from Necessary Losses and what is their importance?

According to Viorst, Benjamin Spock is a great expander of our time. A famous baby doctor, Spock's political activism and personal growth has been the subject of public observation for years. Once a conservative Republican, he later marched against the Vietnam War and was convicted for conspiracy involving draft resistance. Spock also became a feminist, divorced after fifty years, and remarried a woman forty years younger than himself. Still in therapy in his advanced age, Spock knows he is out of touch with his feelings, but as a child, he knew that the world was "his oyster." Viorst uses Spock as an example of how incredibly vibrant and dynamic we can be as we go through old age, as well as the way we don't stop learning, but rather, continue to grow as our lives are change and our bodies age.