I missed this yesterday... but Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert, died yesterday:

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as "Mr. Wizard" and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert's son-in-law.

A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a tie and white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show for children on NBC in 1951.

I watched his show on Nickelodeon in the 1980's when I was growing up... and loved it.  He inspired me to learn more about the world around me and how it worked.  I see some of the shows that try to do the same thing today, like Beakman's World, and they don't even hold a candle to what Mr. Wizard did.  Those other shows are cartoony, and dumbed down, and childish.  Mr. Wizard was like the science teacher you wish you had in school.  Somewhere I still even have one of his books.

He will be missed... and future generations will grow up poorer for his departure.  God speed sir.