If you are between the ages of 53 and 55, or if you have parents or grandparents of that age, this gentle, careful meticulous scientist is the reason you are alive today. She is the reason you or your parents or grandparents were not born hideously deformed.
You are here because Frances O. Kelsey single-handedly kept the drug thalidomide away from America’s pregnant mothers.
No American president for nearly half a century after John Kennedy recognized Kelsey’s heroic work. She received honorable recognition from private associations but she was never awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
On the occasion of her 100th Birthday in July 2014 America owes this hero more than it can imagine.