This weekend brings the farewell dinner recognizing our planet's best known, favorite engineer. The influence of James Doohan (as the friendly Scotty to all save perhaps that popinjay Fox) cannot be underestimated. The technological marvels we take for granted sprang from the work of generations inspired by this one hard drinking, swearing, red-shirted miracle worker. Somehow in his very essence he instantiated the hardware of the Star Trek universe; he understood its clockwork better than the ship designers themselves, and never met a machine he couldn't fix (or unplug). What kind of man reads technical journals in his down hours?

It's hard to list my favorite Scotty moments since there are so many. His skills single-handedly saved the ship several times, as when reactivating a distracting phaser in "The Doomsday Machine." In "The Apple" he was fired and rehired, but it was even his idea! His "Fool me once" declaration stumps the verbally-challenged among world leaders; his ability to drink anybody under the table ("It's green!") goes largely unquestioned. Maybe my favorite moment though- among my favorites in TOS, period- would be his threat to obliterate Eminiar to recover his captain.

The dinner effort, set to present this archetype with the honor he so honestly earned, matches the effort to secure an overly-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When I first learned of "Scotty's Star" I was compelled to contribute since my own career in engineering was, if not spawned, then constantly invigorated by the admiration I felt enjoying the depiction of Montgomery Scott. Indomitable on the bridge, fearless before planetary potentates of all sorts (armed with Claymore or not!), discussing the diplomacy of a fully activated phaser, and above everything else unwaveringly loyal to the end to his Enterprise- no bloody A, B, C, or D.

Time relieves none from its burden and frankly the man has lived a real man's life, doing so giving us much to appreciate. I wish I knew the man better; I barely know his work. Not just the other Canadian on a space television program, Doohan was an actual war hero too. He lost his famous fingertip during D Day action, a tale grippingly told in his fascinating book "Beam Me Up Scotty." In it he recounts a life in which the Scott character doesn't represent the entirety but rather just another achievement to shine beside the others. Ah, the tribute owed this man my puny flow of words cannot pay. May God bless the world with more people like him.