These days when the cream of elite students channel directly to lucrative fields of finance and law, I’m intrigued by the self-made character who allows an overriding interest to bloom and shape his life’s work. Paul Cartwright, a man in his 50’s, has always been fascinated with physics-- tensile strength, compression, the power of an arch, heat transfer, &c-- the building blocks of how things work. Architect of marine installations, municipal piers, homes, inventor, industrial engineer, city councilman, I’ve known him for about ten years, and every time we speak he has an entirely different project under his belt. No fancy office, staff, or large promotional budget, he br... See full document!