“I’m crazy, I know that. But it’s a useful crazy, it turns out.” —Walter Boggs

Walter wouldn’t describe himself this way to me until several months later, but I think I began to understand what he meant the first time we met. I was taken down to the basement to meet Walter in his workshop during my first few weeks at National Geographic, while I was still getting to know everyone. He was surrounded by drawings and scraps of metal and tools that I had never seen before, and he was completely engrossed in a remote-control car he was working on. I would be surprised if he remembers that first meeting—our introduction barely slowed him down enough to say “hello”