“He Simply Went About His Ordinary Duties”

In a column about end-of-the-world theories, Steinberg notes the case of Dorothy Martin. A suburban-Chicago housewife, she predicted in 1954 that “the nation would be destroyed by floods while she and fellow true believers were whisked to paradise by flying saucers,” according to Steinberg, who cites a book on Martin, titled When Prophecy Fails.

“My favorite person in the book is Mr. Martin who, as his as his wife is preparing to greet the flying saucers, is described as: ‘A man of infinite patience, gentleness, and tolerance amounting almost to self-abasement, he never believed that his wife could communicate with other worlds, yet he never actively opposed her activities or sought to dissuade her … He simply went about his ordinary duties in the distributing company where he was a traffic manager, and did not allow the unusual events in his home to disturb in the slightest his daily routine.'”