Boy Wonder of the World?

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 23

Boy Wonder of the World?

By

MATT SPETALNICK

NZPA Miami

What’s left in life for a 16-year-old whizz-kid with an IQ of 190 who has already graduated twice from college, starred in films and stage plays, invented computer programs and trained a boa constrictor?

Stephen Baccus topped his own list of achievements this month when he received his diploma from the University of Miami Law School, becoming the youngest law graduate in American history. Since Florida law will keep him out of legal practice for another two years, Stephen’s manager says he plans to begin marketing the boy genius for world consumption. “Let’s just say we’re going to make sure this kid lives a very, very profitable life," says Mr Murray Baum, Stephen’s hard-driving business manager and talent agent. Stephen, who wears braces on his teeth, will sit for the state bar examination soon.

“No big deal," says Stephen, slender and sandy-haired. He will then take off on a corporate-sponsored world tour aimed at capitalising on his brains and theatrical talents.

The plan, his manager says, is to put Stephen on sfefee tapdance, deUwr speeches on world

issues and promote products ranging from computers to cameras — all in a single show. Will people actually pay to see this act? Mr Baum thinks so — especially, he says, after they hear the “Little Stevie Baccus Story.” Stephen, the press releases proclaim, is the "foremost contender for the title of Boy Wonder of the World.” It began when his mother, Florence, a counsellor at a Miami area high school, took on the whole school system to get her bored eight-year-old son skipped from the fourth grade directly to the ninth grade. At 12, Stephen entered New York University and ploughed through two years of courses in one year.

Already an academic celebrity, he saw his bar mitzvah (coming of age ceremony for Jewish boys at 13) turned into an international media event.

A New York City politician, Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, declared “Stephen Baccus Day” in his honour and in an official proclamation that raised more than a few eyebrows, trumpeted the boy’s achievements as “unparalleled in 3000 years of Jewish history.” “Well, maybe he was exaggerating a little bit,” says the soft-spdflten Stephen. “I’m not sure

though. I haven’t researched back that far.”

Soon afterward, Stephen was mugged by a gang of youths at a video game arcade, and his parents shipped him home to attend the University of Miami. At 14, he obtained a bachelors degree in computer science with honours and moved on to law school.

In between his academic pursuits, Stephen found time to act in dozens of movies, commercials and off-Broad-way plays.

He was in the media spotlight once again when he walked down the aisle of a chapel at the University of Miami in January to receive his law-school diploma.

The precocious Stephen was a full nine years younger, and a head shorter, than most of his graduating classmates. Stephen says he enjoys all the attention, but admits to being a little uncomfortable with the “genius” label. “I really think I’m just a regular kid who learns a little faster than other people,” Stephen said.

And then he grins — not the grin of a sharpwitted attorney-to-be but the sheepish grin of a shy teenager who has been asked the same questions one time too many.

What’s left in life for Steven Baccus? That, too, is “no big deal.” “After the tour, I’d like to get a masters and a doctorate in computer science,” he explains intently. “Then I’d like to star in some movies, then practice law like my Dad. Maybe even get into politics. It’s just so hard to decide on one thing, isn’t it?”