William Cashore — Biographie de Jeune Prodige

Biographie

The 1954 bee

Cashore was 14, from Center Square in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and the runner-up was an 11-year-old named William Kelly. The contemporary report in the Daytona Beach Morning-Journal gave the prize as $500 and put the word uncinated in its headline; the record more often cited since, including TIME's later feature on past champions, gives his winning word as transept.

Both can be true of the same final - a champion spells several words in the closing rounds, and a headline writer takes the most striking - but the discrepancy is worth flagging rather than smoothing over. A reader who wants one answer should note that the contemporary headline and the later summaries do not name the same word.

What he did next

He went to Notre Dame and then to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and became a neonatologist: a doctor for newborn infants, and particularly for those born early or sick. By 2016, when TIME revisited the bee's champions, he was professor emeritus at Brown University's Alpert Medical School, living in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Neonatology as a specialty barely existed when Cashore won his bee. The intensive care of premature babies became a distinct discipline through the 1960s and 1970s, which places his career at the beginning of one of the largest improvements in survival in modern medicine.

A spelling champion's career

The bee is often described as a predictor of nothing in particular, and the evidence mostly supports that. What it does reliably select for is a child able to prepare relentlessly for a public test with a low tolerance for error, which is a description of medical training as much as of a spelling contest.

Cashore is one of the champions TIME chose to feature precisely because the line from the 1954 stage to a teaching hospital is legible. Most winners do not produce one that clean.

The bee in the 1950s

In the 1950s the national bee was a newspaper event. Sponsoring papers ran regional competitions and sent their champion to Washington, the prize was measured in hundreds of dollars, and winners could expect an appearance on a national television variety show in the days afterwards.

The scale was smaller than today's - dozens of finalists rather than hundreds - but the format was already the one now familiar: elimination rounds, a panel of judges, a dictionary as the final authority and a single child left standing.

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What is documented, and what is not

Documented: the 1954 championship, his age of 14, Center Square, Pennsylvania, the $500 prize, the 11-year-old runner-up William Kelly, his education at Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania, and his position as professor emeritus at Brown's Alpert Medical School in 2016.

Not documented, or in dispute: the winning word, which the contemporary headline and later accounts give differently. Also absent from these sources are his family, his research record and anything after 2016.

Chronologie des Réalisations

1954

Remporte le National Spelling Bee à 14 ansRemporte le National Spelling Bee à 14 ans et un premier prix de 500 $ ; William Kelly, 11 ans, est finaliste

1950s-60s

Études à Notre Dame puis en médecineÉtudes à Notre Dame puis en faculté de médecine à l'Université de Pennsylvanie

2016

TIME le note comme néonatologue etTIME le note comme néonatologue et professeur émérite à l'Alpert Medical School de Brown, vivant à East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Comparaison Historique

Personne	Pays	Étape	Âge / Donnée
Arvind Mahankali	États-Unis	A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2013 à 13 ans	13 ans
Kerry Close	États-Unis	A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2006 à 13 ans	13 ans
William Cashore	États-Unis	Champion du National Spelling Bee 1954	14 ans
Hugh Tosteson García	Porto Rico (États-Unis)	Champion du National Spelling Bee 1975	14 ans
Roy Seligman	Bahamas	Premier concurrent des Bahamas à atteindre le Scripps National Spelling Bee...	—

What is documented — and what is not

✓ Documented

He won the 1954 National Spelling Bee at 14, for a $500 prize
He became a neonatologist and professor emeritus at Brown's Alpert Medical School
The 1954 runner-up was William Kelly, aged 11

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

The winning word: contemporary and later accounts name uncinated and transept respectively
His family and his research record
Anything after 2016

Questions people ask about William Cashore

What word did William Cashore win on?

Accounts differ. The contemporary Daytona Beach Morning-Journal headline names uncinated; later summaries, including TIME's, give transept. Both are recorded here rather than one being chosen.

How old was he when he won?

He was 14 at the 1954 National Spelling Bee; his birth year is recorded as 1940.

What did William Cashore become?

A neonatologist - a doctor for newborn infants - and a professor at Brown University's Alpert Medical School, where he is professor emeritus.

Where did he study?

Notre Dame, then medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.

How much did he win in 1954?

$500, according to the contemporary newspaper report.

Where is William Cashore now?

TIME reported in 2016 that he was living in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, as professor emeritus at Brown. Nothing later appears in the sources used here.