SARANAC LAKE – Albert Einstein’s ties to this village will be celebrated later this month with a series of festivities highlighted by the unveiling of a Walk of Fame plaque in honor of the world-renowned physicist.

Timed to coincide with Einstein’s birthday, March 14, the day’s events include a 5:30 p.m. physics demonstration by Saranac Lake High School students at the village Board of Trustees meeting and the plaque unveiling at 7 p.m. outside Bitters & Bones on Broadway. The ceremony will be followed by an Einstein look-alike contest at Bitters & Bones.

The Walk of Fame was established by the village in 2010 and has already unveiled plaques for six people: Olympic gold medalist skier Billy Demong, Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, tuberculosis cure pioneer Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, World War II Allied spy Dr. Rene Joyeuse, the first Adirondack 46er Herb Clark and, most recently, famed novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson.

Einstein is one of another 15 members of the Walk of Fame who don’t have plaques yet. Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau credited Michael Sullivan of Lake Placid with coming up with the idea for an Einstein-themed event to mark the unveiling of his plaque.

“When we made our last order of plaques, Albert Einstein’s was included,” Rabideau said. “As it turns out, his birthday is March 14. It’s a perfect time with not a lot going on, except for (the village) election the next day.”

Einstein visited Saranac Lake numerous times, starting in the summers of 1936 and 1937, according to Historic Saranac Lake Executive Director Amy Catania.

“During those first two summers he rented architect William Distin’s house at the Glenwood Estates,” Catania wrote. “He returned to Saranac Lake throughout the forties, and was one of many prominent Jewish American(s) who stayed at the beautiful Knollwood Club on Lower Saranac Lake.”

Einstein loved to sail, but he didn’t know how to swim, and more than once he capsized in his sailboat and had to be rescued. During the summer of 1941, a young Don Duso, later the fire chief and longtime chairman of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee, came to Einstein’s rescue.

“Ten-year-old Duso was out in a small motor boat when he saw the boat capsize,” Albany Times-Union reporter Richard Lewis wrote in an account provided by Catania. “By the time the youngster got there, the scientist was under the water, with his foot caught in the boat’s rigging. Said Duso, ‘He was down for the count. If I had not been nearby, he probably would have drowned.'”

Einstein was in Saranac Lake in summer 1945 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Catania wrote. He was in the kitchen at Knollwood’s cabin 6 when he heard the news on the radio. Lewis interviewed Einstein that day.

“In developing atomic or nuclear energy, science did not draw upon supernatural strength, but merely imitated the reaction of the sun’s rays,” Einstein was quoted as saying. “Atomic power is no more unnatural than when I sail my boat on Saranac Lake.”

Although famous worldwide for his pacifist views, Einstein had written a letter in 1939 to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning that Nazi Germany could be developing an atomic bomb and that the U.S. would be wise to get there first, Catania wrote.

Einstein later said he regretted the letter. He argued against U.S. development of a nuclear arsenal and instead advocated that the United Nations control the world’s nuclear weapons for deterrence.

Einstein hosted numerous visitors during his vacations in Saranac Lake, Catania said. In 1998, the Enterprise revisited Albert Einstein’s history in Saranac Lake, recounting one local resident’s memories of a mysterious Russian friend who visited Einstein. The woman matched the description of Margarita Konenkova, the Russian spy who is now known to have had a romantic liaison with the scientist. Luise Rainer, the first actor to win multiple Academy Awards and the first actress to win them consecutively, in 1936 and 1937, was also one of his guests.

While Einstein was never a full-time Saranac Lake resident, that doesn’t mean his time spent here shouldn’t be recognized, the mayor said.

“(The Walk of Fame) is for people who’ve been residents, perhaps for a short time in our community, but have made a mark in our nation and the world,” Rabideau said.

The Walk of Fame plaque for Einstein will be located on a brick facade on a corner of Bitters & Bones. The building has no known connection to Einstein, but the point of the Walk of Fame is to keep all the plaques on Main Street and Broadway, Rabideau said.

“I think in the years to come it will draw people to one’s business,” he said. “When you have 25 Walk of Fame plaques, people can start at one end of downtown and work their way to the other to look at all the plaques. We’re not saying it’s going to be a major tourist attraction, but we’re recognizing Saranac Lake’s heritage, and this is one of many small things we can do to put together a critical mass of activities and attractions for tourism.”

In popular culture, Einstein is known as much for his distinctive hairstyle as for his achievements in science. Hence the look-alike contest. Rabideau said he’s hoping a few local residents who resemble Einstein will show up.

“I don’t think we’ll get the largest turnout in the world, but hopefully we’ll get two or three people who look like him,” he said. “If not, Amy Catania says she has some Albert Einstein wigs she can pass out.”