Perhaps you read about Stephen Hawking’s recent visit that wowed an overflow crowd at Zellerbach Auditorium (See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/14/BAGP7OKTQ51.DTL&hw=jason+becker&sn=001&sc=1000). What you may have missed in the article was reference to a Richmonder of note, Jason Becker, a musician who also has ALS.

"It's really cool,'' said Jason Becker, who was in a wheelchair and communicated with his nurse with eye movements, "and I have the same disease as him. Besides, I loved him on the Simpsons.''

Jason’s mother, Pat Becker, works at my firm, Interactive Resources, and she related this about a meeting Tuesday night between her son, Jason, and Stephen Hawking:

“Jason met Hawking as they were both beginning the long process of getting in their vans. He wanted to share his eye communication system, which Gary [Becker, Jason’s father] invented, with him because he thinks it’s a quicker way to communicate, and you don’t have to worry about the power going out. It took Jason seconds to communicate “it’s an honor to meet you” and Hawking at least a minute to respond with “nice to meet you too”. It turns out that Hawking’s eyes are probably too weak to use the system, but he appreciated the thought. It would have been fun to say Gary out-thought Stephen Hawking.”

Jason also filled Zellerbach Auditorium when the Diablo Ballet performed his piece, “End of the Beginning”). If you want to learn ore about Jason, just Google “Jason Becker.”