My father had an encounter with James Doohan shortly before I was born. He met him at a convention in Grand Rapids, MI. After the convention was over he spent about 15 minutes talking one on one with Doohan. My father mentioned how polite he was the whole time, and even when someone came over and interrupted them (to get James to sign something for him), James looked at the person and said, "Excuse me, I'm having a conversation with this lad right now."