Born in 1917 in Brooklyn, NY, this man grew up to be a civil engineer. At the age of 30 he went to work for Dade County, Fla., updating the local building code. Important work to be sure, but nothing glamorous or historic. But one thing would set this hidden gem apart. He had developed a very specific fascination for one aspect of his work — hurricanes. According to Wikipedia, he became a leading advocate for stricter codes in hurricane-prone zones. In 1965 while working on a United Nations-commissioned study of windstorm damage on low-cost housing, he developed a scale to categorize the intensity of hurricanes. His name was Herbert Saffir, and you often hear about his work. Today, hurricanes — like the Category 5 Hurricane Dorian — are measured on to the Saffir-Simpson scale.