I narrowed my college choices to Harvard or Yale, but could afford the $10 application fee for only one of them. I decided to apply to Yale after seeing their team defeat a team from Harvard on the G.E. College Bowl TV quiz show.

Wild guess, but I'm thinking African American who was into sciences, about 70 years old--Ben Carson

We have a winner! Landmark correctly guessed Dr. Ben Carson. Here’s the rest of his bio:

I was accepted by Yale and offered a full scholarship covering tuition, room and board. In 1973, I graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Yale.

In the summers following my high school graduation until my second year in medical school, I worked at a variety of jobs: As a payroll clerk; a trash pickup supervisor; a crane operator; assembling parts on an automobile assembly line; and a radiology technician taking X-rays.

I graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School with an M.D. degree in 1977. I was then accepted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurosurgery program, where I served one year as a surgical intern and five years as a neurosurgery resident, completing the final year as chief resident in 1983.

Thereafter I spent a year as Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at a hospital in Australia, before returning to Johns Hopkins in 1984. I was appointed the university's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, specializing in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia.

My achievements include participating in the first reported separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. (Although surgically a success, the twins continued to suffer neurologic & medical complications).

Additional accomplishments include performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb, developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors, and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures.

I wrote over 100 neurosurgical publications, and retired from medicine in 2013. I’ve received numerous honors for my neurosurgery work, including more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous national merit citations.

I gained national fame among political conservatives after delivering a speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, which was perceived as critical of the policies of President Barack Obama.

Following widespread speculation of a presidential run, I officially announced my campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination for President in May 2015. I performed strongly in early polls, leading to my being considered a frontrunner for the nomination.

However, my polling support began to decline following scrutiny of my foreign policy credentials after the November 2015 Paris attacks. I withdrew from the race after Super Tuesday, following a string of disappointing primary results, and endorsed Donald Trump.

Following Trump's victory, he nominated me as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, being confirmed by the United States Senate in a 58–41 vote on March 2, 2017. I am considered one of the most prominent black conservatives in America.

Your turn, Landmark.

You guys are killing me! Due to no follow-up by the previous winner, I’ll start a new round:

I was born in Ashford, Kent, on 25 August 1938.

The son of a furrier, I was educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada in Spain.

I completed my National Service in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, for which I flew the de Havilland Vampire.

Sorry--I didn't check back because it was such a wild guess I didn't think I would be right!


No idea yet on your person.

In 1961, I joined Reuters, and in 1965 the BBC, for which I served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.

My early career as a journalist for Reuters was spent covering French affairs, after which I was sent to Africa by the BBC, to report on the war between Biafra and Nigeria.

Peter woods?

Not Peter.

Few expected the war to last very long considering the poor weaponry of the Biafrans when compared to the British-armed Nigerians. After the first 6 months, I was eager to stay on and keep reporting, but the BBC refused.

This was a period when the Vietnam War was front-page headlines, and regarded broadly as an American failure, and I realized that this British foul-up in Nigeria was not going to be covered. So I decided to cover the war myself. I quit my job and flew out there as a freelance reporter, staying for most of the next two years.

Many years later, I revealed that in Biafra I was an informant for MI6, the UK Secret Intelligence Service. (This relationship with MI6 continued for 20 years).

John le Carré

Not Mr. Cornwell, but a good guess.

Eventually I decided to write novels, using research techniques similar to those utilized in journalism. My first full-length novel was published in 1971 and became an international bestseller.

Other thrillers followed with plots involving hackers, mercenaries, drug dealers, fighter pilots and terrorists. Research necessitated that I travel to many different countries; some of them dangerous at the time.

I wrote lyrics to a lament titled "Fallen Soldier,” with music by Gareth Ellis Williams, which was released as a single by Royal Opera House soprano Melissa Alder.

Tom clancy?

Not Tom.

My works frequently appear on best-sellers lists, and more than a dozen of my titles have been adapted to film. By 2006, I had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages.

Actors such as Derek Jacobi, Christopher Walken, Timothy Hutton, Jon Voight, Michael Caine, and Sam Elliott have starred in movie adaptations of some of my novels.

Michael Crighton

Not Michael Chrichton, alias John Lange, alias Jeffrey Hudson, alias Michael Douglas (Chrichton’s other pen names).

Because my writing eschews psychological complexity in favor of meticulous plotting (based on detailed factual research), my books always include technical details of such subjects as money laundering, gun running, and identity theft.

I was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours list for services to literature. And in 2012 the Crime Writers Association announced that I had won its Cartier Diamond Dagger award in recognition of my body of work.