Remind you of anyone?

Number 6 on this list.
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i21/21b02001.htm

Sound like someone we know?

"I went to Denver and bought beakers, retorts, a Bunsen burner, test
tubes, you name it. I bought sample chemicals and I got myself a fresh
library card. I converted the narrow, long room that went across the
back of the Mansion into a Chemical Laboratory and went to work. I did
not come out of it for three years. I worked seven days a week
averaging 14 hour days, month after month, year after year. I was
obsessed. I was determined to find a dry fly dressing that was better
then anything else in the world."

--riverman