Many people who grew up in Waterbury before 1970 remember school trips to the Mattatuck Museum to see the 10, 000-piece button display, Charles Goodyear's rubber desk and colonial era tools and clothing.
He grew up in Waterbury, Connecticut, the son of an elementary-school teacher and a math professor, went to nearby Fairfield University, and, like many good students, decided that he would go into medicine.