The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 13

having psychotic breaks, hallucinations and
paranoia that betrayed a deep-seated illness
that ravaged him and those closest to him.
Unable to cope, Alicia filed for divorce the
day after Christmas 1962, which was granted
a few months later. Alicia had committed her
husband to a mental institution a few years
prior, for which he was resentful. A second
committal to the Trenton State Hospital in
New Jersey was made by Virginia. As with
the first stay, John was kept for a few months
and then released. Colleagues and friends
of John at Princeton sought to help, but all
efforts ultimately were fruitless. Thus, John
arrived at his mother's apartment alone and
ill in late June of 1967.
Almost daily John frequented the Raleigh
Court Branch Library and the businesses in
the Grandin Village, whistling as he went.
But most days he paced back and forth
in his mother's apartment whistling. He
assumed various identities - a refugee, a
Japanese shogun, Biblical characters and even
animals. Layered on this were apocalyptic
visions and paranoid delusions - all driven
by schizophrenia.
Those who lived in the neighborhood soon
The Raleigh Court Branch Library in
1968, when John was a regular patron.
became aware of John, but he remained a
stranger. The whistling, the hollowed face and
gaunt eyes caused persons to pause and cross
the street. Parents warned their children to
keep their distance. His appearance made
John look much older than he was. Virginia
never talked of her son's illness with her
friends in Roanoke. It was a purely private
matter.
Those that lived in the small apartment
complex found John a nuisance. His plodding
around the grounds made them anxious.
Those who lived in the neighborhood
soon became aware of John, but he
remained a stranger. The whistling, the
hollowed face and gaunt eyes caused
persons to pause and cross the street.
TheRoanoker.com
Once when a fire started in an incinerator,
the neighbors quickly suspected John was an
arsonist. The landlord threatened eviction.
Virginia shouldered the burden and
bore the brunt of John's erratic behaviors.
Unwilling to let others in on the family's
secret, she and Martha provided what
equilibrium they could. In November 1969
Virginia died. John's paranoia refused to
accept the death as anything other than
suspicious, and his relationship with Martha
became even more strained.
Unable to live on his own, John moved
in with Martha, her husband and their two
young children in their new home. She could
not cope with her brother's illness. John
paced her house whistling and muttering
delusional theories. Shortly after Christmas
1969, Martha sought the assistance of wellknown
Roanoke attorney Leonard Muse
and had her brother committed to the
mental institution at Staunton. He stayed
two months and was released on his own
recognizance. John, angry at his sister for the
committal, temporarily severed relations with
her and put Roanoke behind him.
Over time, John's paranoid schizophrenia
was managed with success through a variety
of drugs and other treatments. He gradually
re-entered academia, teaching, publishing
and lecturing. An event in 1994, however,
caught the attention of many, including New
York Times journalist Sylvia Nassar. Nassar
asked her editors for a leave of absence to
write about John's erratic but amazing life
story.
The result was Nasar's biography " A
Beautiful Mind " published in 1999 that was
followed by the Academy Award-winning
film of the same title in 2001. For her
research, Nassar traveled to Roanoke in 1995
and interviewed Martha about her brother
and the Roanoke years that marked one of
the lowest ebbs in John's battle with mental
illness, a period Nassar titled " A Man All
Alone in a Strange World. "
So what was the event in 1994? That year
John Forbes Nash, Jr. - the gaunt-faced
whistler on Grandin Road - won the Nobel
Prize in economics. I
NELSON HARRIS is a former mayor of Roanoke and author of a dozen books on the region's history. He is the minister at Heights Community Church in Roanoke and a past
president of the Historical Society of Western Virginia.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 13

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