George Archer: American golfer.

Born:  October 1, 1939

Died:  September 25, 2005

About the same time that Tiger Woods admitted to serial adultery, Donna Archer shared a secret she and her husband, golf legend George Archer, had kept for 45 years.  George could not read.

They felt it was important to tell the story, to let people know how difficult it was for him.  And also to let people know you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams without having all the tools.

He would panic if you asked him to do anything else.  It was so heartbreaking.  We felt this (story) would explain his personality. Everything he did was predicated on that (illiteracy), or hiding it.

He was so smart, he would have learned in a very short time had he stuck with it.  I became convinced he was literally not capable of learning.

Despite years of effort, he never learned to read beyond a rudimentary level. He never could write more than a few crude sentences.  Eventually, he was able to get through an article on the sports page, and he learned to write his name for autographs.  But that was it.  Over the years, George became incredibly adept at covering up his disability. But he was always afraid fans would want him to personalize an autograph, or that he’d have to read some prepared sentences on television.

George’s illiteracy caused him terrible anxiety, even in victory. He kept many potential sponsors at arm’s length for fear that he might be asked to read a speech or write a few words.

He even worried about going back to Augusta to defend his title in 1970, because he was afraid that fans would want him to personalize the autographs he signed or that he’d have to read some prepared sentences on television.