Page 11 - 10 at 10: The Surprising Childhoods of Ten Remarkable People

1922
eugenie Clark Eugenie is born.

1922–2015

“Come on in the water . . .” Age 2
So begins one of the scariest scenes in movie history. In Learns to swim
Martha’s Vineyard, a young girl named Chrissie jumps into the
ocean for an evening swim.
Suddenly, something pulls her under. The music thumps
like a fearful heart. Seconds pass. She screams, and then all is
quiet. The orange glow of dusk dances over the still water.
We later learn Chrissie was attacked by a 25-foot (7.6 m)
great white shark set on getting revenge. This is the opening
scene of Jaws, a movie adaptation of the best-selling novel by
Peter Benchley.
Eugenie Clark, a Japanese American researcher and
ichthyologist (a scientist who studies fish), hated Jaws. Known Age 9
as the shark lady, Eugenie worked her entire adult life to Visits NYC aquarium.
dispel the public’s fear of sharks, and Jaws made that mission Sees sharks for the
very difficult. To start, sharks are not interested in revenge, first time.
and when they hunt for food, humans are not on the menu. In
fact, fatal shark attacks are so uncommon that your odds of
being killed by a falling cow are greater. Sharks kill fewer than
eighty-four people per year worldwide, and great white sharks
account for only five to ten of those deaths.
Eugenie understood a shark’s personality better than most Age 24
because she spent her life around them. Eugenie learned to Receives master’s
swim before the age of two. When she was nine years old, her degree in zoology
mom would drop her off at the old New York Aquarium while and learns to dive
she went to work. Eugenie’s father had died when she was
two, and with little money for childcare, the aquarium became
Eugenie’s babysitter. With her face pressed against the cold
glass tank, she would imagine herself swimming with the sharks Age 28
and walking along the seafloor like a weightless ballerina. Earns her
PhD from
New York
25 University