Benjamin Solomon Carson

Dates: born September 18, 1951 (Detroit)

Ben Carson is a pioneering neurosurgeon, an author, and also a politician. His mother was only 13 years old when she married Ben’s father who was 28. But later she learned of his dishonesty and the couple separated. Ben, his brother, and his mom moved around several times while he was growing up. At one point, his school success began to fall, and his mother noticed. She then required her sons to read two books per week and write a book report. He grades came back up. Ben had a violent temper as a youth, but he began to see the affect and started reading the Bible, and afterward no longer struggled with the violent behaviors.

After graduating from high school, Ben went to Yale and graduated, though not at the top of his class. He then attended medical school in Michigan. He worked odd jobs through college including a mail room clerk, car assembly line worker, a crane operator, and a police aide. In his first year of medical school, Ben did poorly, and began to attend lectures less frequently and would study all day from morning until night, and started to improve. He was accepted to John Hopkins Hospital for his residency. Ben married a fellow student, Candy, from Yale, and they had three sons.

After residency, Ben Carson became the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the USA at the age of 33. In his career, he performed the only successful separation of conjoined twins and also the first successful neurosurgical operation on a fetus still in the womb. In 2016, Ben decided to run for president, but withdrew early. He became the leader of an organization dedicated to encouraging Christians to vote, called My Faith Votes. He is now the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He and his wife also established a scholarship foundation for children in grades 4–11 with exceptional academic and humanitarian excellence. He has received many awards, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom and over 60 honorary doctoral degrees. He has also written numerous books, and over 100 medical publications. He and his wife are Christians, belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist church.

“You have the ability to choose which way you want to go. You have to believe great things are going to happen in your life. Do everything you can — prepare, pray and achieve — to make it happen.”