American Achievers

Season 4, Episode 6: Bob Lilly

Part 1 of 2: Bob Lilly talks about learning from his father’s tenacity, the devastating drought that forced his family to leave Texas, how his life pivoted on landing a football scholarship to TCU, and becoming the first draft choice of the expansion Dallas Cowboys.

Season 4, Episode 5: Richard Jadick

Urologist Richard Jadick talks about the tragedy that rocked his upstate New York family, the television show that inspired his medical career, how he became the most decorated doctor of the Iraq War, and the battlefield memories that still haunt him.

Season 4, Episode 4: Bob Tiffin

Bob Tiffin talks about the lessons he learned around his father’s home supply store, the leap he took to launch Tiffin Motorhomes, how he built the family operation into a leading RV manufacturer, and the power of a very big check.

Season 4, Episode 3: Eileen Collins

Part 2 of 2: Eileen Collins talks about the pressure she felt to measure up at NASA, becoming the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle, how traveling to space affected her, and the tragic day when Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, killing seven of her colleagues.

Season 4, Episode 2: Eileen Collins

Part 1 of 2: Eileen Collins talks about her youthful fascination with flight, the stuttering that dented her confidence, negotiating the road from community-college math major to barrier-shattering U.S. Air Force pilot, and achieving her dream of becoming an astronaut.

Season 4, Episode 1: Bill Hardgrave

Bill Hardgrave talks about becoming the first person in his family to graduate from high school, using basketball to earn a college education, and how technology powered his unlikely journey into higher education—culminating with his appointment as president of the University of Memphis.

Season 3, Episode 14: Gabe Kallos

Gabe Kallos talks about the rise of antisemitism in his native Hungary and how it affected how he saw himself, somehow avoiding the gas chambers as a teenage slave laborer at the Auschwitz concentration camp, emigrating to the United States, and carving out a good life as a Southern California dentist.

Season 3, Episode 13: Paul Coffman

Paul Coffman talks about being shaped by the values of a small Kansas farming community, walking onto the football team at Kansas State, where he eventually earned a scholarship and a starting position, and negotiating the arduous road from undrafted free agent to Pro Bowl tight end for the Green Bay Packers.

Season 3, Episode 12: Norman Gaddis

Part 2 of 2: Norman Gaddis talks about the day he was captured by the North Vietnamese, the torture he endured, how he survived 2,124 days at the infamous prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton, and the joy he felt when he reunited with his family and resumed his Air Force career.

 

Season 3, Episode 11: Norman Gaddis

Part 1 of 2: Retired Air Force General Norman Gaddis talks about the moment of initiative during World War II that changed his life, flying escorts in the Berlin Airlift, volunteering for duty as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, and the fateful day when his F-4 was blasted out of the sky.