And he can barely read.

“I didn’t know I had dyslexia,” said 60‑year‑old Horner about his childhood in a telephone

interview from his office at the Museum of the Rockies, where he is curator of paleontology. “Reading is the hardest thing I do in life. I remember as a child kids would laugh at me because if a teacher asked me to stand and read, I wouldn’t. I’d rather take the ‘F.’”

Dyslexia may affect more than 10 percent of Americans. The International Dyslexia Association defines it as a “specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding.”

For instance, in a simple, one‑line e‑mail to me to confirm our interview for this column, Horner had two glaring typos.

So how did he become “Doctor” Horner? Didn’t he have to write research papers?

He said, “I don’t hold a college degree of any kind, other than an honorary doctorate from the University of Montana, where I flunked out seven quarters in a row.” He claims that in life he has written exactly six books, which adds up to more than he has read. An assistant helped him write the books.

“The only fiction book I’ve read cover‑to‑cover took me months,” he said. “‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was amazing, but it took me so long to read. At the end I was starting to forget what I’d read in the beginning.”

In the mid‑‘70s, Horner’s life changed dramatically when he discovered in Montana a new dinosaur species and was first in North America to find dinosaur eggs. Partly due to Horner’s other finds, the Museum of the Rockies now has the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus rex collection.

In 1978, he was hired as a museum technician at Princeton University. It was there by chance that he first learned of his dyslexia at the age of 32.

Next week: I’ll have more on Dr. Horner. For more, see danieljvance.com or www.interdys.org. [This column made possible by a grant from Blue Valley Sod, www.bluevalleysod.com.