SigMT

SiG MT 97 of Dr. Hilleman's brothers. He was far from affluent and spent his youth devoid of privilege, but his upbringing was rich in hands-on education and the quiet pride that comes with a job well done. "Maurice had a wonderful life with them," Lorraine said. "Bob was very much a free-thinker." Dr. Hilleman and his brothers lived near a dump and loved to go on scavenger hunts, using discarded items they found to build new creations. "He built a car and repaired a bicycle," Lorraine said. "ey found an old x-ray machine and were playing with that. It is actually amazing he survived." Dr. Hilleman's daughter, Kirsten, said her father would oen tell her and her sister, Jeryl Lynn, about life on the farm. "He would talk all the time about how when you grow up on a farm it gives you this tremendous work ethic," Kirsten recalled. "ere is no luxury of downtime. You have to get up early and do chores, even when it is freezing cold. en he would run five to seven miles to school because it was too cold to walk!" Farm life was "a constant biology lesson" for the budding scientist, she said. "His job was to take care of the chickens and he would see all of the life cycle that went on with them," Kirsten explained. "His adopted mother, Edith, would show him the tumors on some of the chickens and would explain that they couldn't eat them because of them." Having to exterminate the birds due to this illness was a lesson Dr. Hilleman carried with him into adulthood. Eventually, he was able to use the knowledge his aunt gave him to help develop a vaccine to prevent the development of Marek's disease and the consequential tumors it caused. e vaccine revolutionized the entire poultry industry, and it also marked the first time anyone successfully developed a vaccine capable of stopping a viral cancer. Aer graduating from Custer County High School in 1937, Dr. Hilleman took a coveted career-track position at his local J.C. Penney store, where he helped his cowpoke customers pick out chenille bathrobes for their girlfriends, e New York Times reported. His older brother, Howard, came home on vacation one day, having obtained a Ph.D. in anatomy and physiology aer the Lutheran seminary didn't work out for him, Lorraine said. Howard urged their father to allow the recent high school grad to go to university. Dr. Hilleman was standing out in his family's field, considering his options, when he decided to leave the J.C. Penney's gig behind to continue his education at Montana State University in Bozeman (MSU), which known at the time as Montana State College, Lorraine later told MSU. "He always said it was one of the best things that ever happened to him," she noted. He went to the university on a full scholarship and graduated first in his class in 1941 with degrees in chemistry and microbiology, according Photo courtesy of HILLEMAN - A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children and the Vaccine Makers Project. Dr. Maurice Hilleman (1919-2005) turned finding life-saving vaccines into a life-long goal.

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