GUINTER KAHN
Thanks to a happy accident discovered in part by 1954 UNO graduate Guinter Kahn, the follicly challenged have something to smile about. In 1971, Kahn, then a doctor and faculty member at the medical school of the University of Colorado in Denver, discovered with fellow researcher Dr. Paul Grant that patients receiving the drug minoxidil orally to treat hypertension were growing hair — and lots of it. The two developed a topical solution, earning a patent for it in 1974. That didn’t sit well with pharmaceutical giant Upjohn, which had patented minoxidil three years earlier as a hypertension treatment. In 1988, Upjohn began the manufacture and sale of the product, today known as Rogaine. The company also settled with Kahn and Grant for more than $26 million in royalties. Kahn, who died in 2014, spent much of the rest of his life using the money to do good. He was a major benefactor to numerous institutions, including UNMC and UNO, where a library addition bears his name. A German-born Jew who immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child, he also supported the Anti-Defamation League, funding a program that sent college students to Poland and Israel to better understand the Holocaust.