chemotherapy: This is Dr. Dennis H. Klatt
 You probably never heard of him
 He is the American computer scientist who gave
 Stephen Hawking his artificial voice in the winter of 1987,
 at least 5 years before it would have been available.
 Over 300 individual recording clips of Dr. Klatts actual
 voice are what we heard when Stephen Hawking 'spoke'.
 Dr. Klatt knew Stephen Hawkings life expectancy was
 short, so he completed the programming in record time.
 Stephen Hawking was extremely grateful and sent Dr. Klatt
 a personal letter of thanks and an invitation to visit him.
 It was not meant to be. Dr. Klatt died of cancer less than
 a year later. He had worked on the voice program while
 undergoing chemotherapy, and (ironically) even
 after the cancer had taken his own voice.
 Over the years, every time Professor Hawkings voice
 technology was upgraded he was offered 'better', more
 natural sounding voices, even one that was customized
 to sound like his original voice, British accent included.
 He always refused, saying "Thank you, no, my
 late friend Dennis voice IS my voice".
Wholesome Hawkings