7 Unbelievable Facts About Stephen Hawking When He Was Young: The Boy Who Built A Computer From Clock Parts

The global fascination with Stephen Hawking’s early life continues to grow, especially as new generations discover his incredible journey. As of today, December 10, 2025, the story of the world's most famous theoretical physicist before he was confined to a wheelchair remains a powerful testament to the unpredictability of genius and fate. Long before he became the voice of cosmology and a symbol of human resilience, Hawking was an ordinary, and in some ways, highly unconventional young man.

The query "Stephen Hawking when he was young" is driven by a deep curiosity: did the man who unlocked the secrets of the universe show early signs of his extraordinary destiny? The truth is far more surprising than most assume. From being a below-average student to a university "slacker" who barely studied, his youth was a chaotic, brilliant, and deeply human prelude to the cosmic brilliance that would follow his life-altering diagnosis.

Stephen William Hawking: Early Life and Biography Snapshot

Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on January 8, 1942—exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo Galilei, a cosmic coincidence he often found amusing. His early life was characterized by a family environment that valued intellectual curiosity above all else, which set the stage for his scientific pursuits.

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• Full Name: Stephen William Hawking
• Born: January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England (during World War II).
• Died: March 14, 2018, in Cambridge, England.
• Parents: Frank Hawking (a research biologist and physician) and Isobel Hawking.
• Early Education: Attended St Albans School. By his own admission, he was not a top student and was eight years old before he learned to read.
• University Education: University College, Oxford (1959–1962). Graduated with a first-class BA degree in Physics at age 20.
• Graduate Studies: Trinity Hall, Cambridge (PhD in Cosmology).
• Diagnosis: Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of Motor Neurone Disease, at age 21 in 1963. He was initially given a prognosis of only two years to live.
• First Marriage: Married Jane Wilde in 1965. They had three children together: Robert, Lucy, and Timothy.

The Unconventional Genius: From Bottom Grades to DIY Computer

The popular image of a young genius often involves straight A's and effortless academic success. Stephen Hawking’s childhood, however, paints a very different picture. He was not immediately recognized as a prodigy in the traditional sense.

A Slow Start to Reading and School Struggles

In his earliest school days, Hawking’s academic performance was surprisingly poor. He was eight years old before he finally learned to read, a fact that stands in stark contrast to his later intellectual achievements.

Furthermore, when he was around nine years old, his grades were reportedly among the worst in his class. This was partially due to his attendance at Byron House School, which followed a "progressive" schooling movement that favored a more hands-off approach to learning.

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The Birth of a Scientific Mind: The DIY Contraption

Despite his lackluster grades, Hawking’s deep curiosity and passion for how things worked were evident. This inquisitiveness manifested in a remarkable hands-on project that foreshadowed his career in theoretical physics and cosmology.

With the help of his mathematics teacher, Dikran Tahta, and a group of friends, the teenage Hawking embarked on a highly ambitious, self-directed project: building a functional computer.

This early "computer" was not a sleek machine; it was a contraption assembled from a collection of recycled materials, including old clock parts and a telephone switchboard. This hands-on, inventive spirit of building something complex from simple components demonstrated his innate mechanical and logical brilliance, even before his formal studies began.

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The Oxford 'Slacker': A Genius Who Averaged One Hour of Study a Day

At the age of 17, Hawking began his university education at University College, Oxford, to study Natural Sciences. His father, a physician, had hoped he would study medicine, but Stephen’s true passion lay in mathematics and physics.

The Anti-Work Ethic of a Brilliant Mind

Hawking’s time at Oxford is perhaps the most shocking period of his youth. By his own admission, he considered the undergraduate work "ridiculously easy" and found the prevailing attitude among students to be "anti-work."

He famously calculated that over the entire three years of his BA degree, he had only put in about 1,000 hours of work. This averages out to barely one hour of studying per day.

Despite this minimal effort, he managed to secure a first-class degree in physics. This feat was not due to luck, but to his sheer intellectual capacity, which allowed him to grasp complex concepts with minimal required study. He even chose theoretical physics to avoid the tedious, hands-on work of laboratory experiments, further cementing his reputation as a brilliant but lazy student.

The Critical Final Exam

The culmination of his Oxford career was his final oral examination (viva). The examiners, unsure whether to award him a First or a Second-class degree, asked him about his future plans.

With characteristic confidence, Hawking told them, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge to do research. If I get a Second, I shall stay in Oxford." Knowing they were dealing with an exceptional mind, the examiners chose to award him the First, paving his way to Cambridge University and the pursuit of cosmology.

The Defining Moment: ALS Diagnosis and Finding Jane Wilde

The transition to Cambridge in 1962 for his PhD marked the beginning of his professional career as a cosmologist, but it also brought the devastating start of his lifelong battle with disease.

The Onset of Symptoms at Age 21

During his first year of graduate school, Hawking began to notice the first signs of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease also known as Motor Neurone Disease. He began to trip and fall, and his speech became slightly slurred.

In 1963, at the age of 21, he received the diagnosis. The prognosis was brutal: doctors gave him only two and a half years to live.

This early-onset, slow-progressing form of the disease was rare, and his ability to defy the initial two-year death sentence for over five decades became a medical marvel and a source of profound inspiration globally.

The Transformative Power of Love

The diagnosis initially plunged Hawking into a state of deep depression and despair. However, a crucial turn of events came when he met Jane Wilde, a fellow student, shortly before his diagnosis.

Jane Wilde’s presence and their subsequent engagement in 1964, followed by their marriage in 1965, provided the young Hawking with a renewed sense of purpose. He later credited her with giving him a reason to live and pursue his research with a new vigor. The belief that he had a limited amount of time spurred him to focus intensely on his work in theoretical physics, eventually leading to his groundbreaking contributions to the study of black holes and relativity.

The young man who was once a "slacker" at Oxford transformed into a relentless researcher at Cambridge, driven by a race against time and a newfound love. His early life, marked by intellectual curiosity and a defiant spirit, ultimately prepared him for a life that would reshape our understanding of the universe.