Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and star-like things and thoughts, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what next, and the joy and game of life.

Born in 1840 at Hechingen Hohenzollern to Jewish parents Ullman immigrated with his family to America to escape discrimination at the age of eleven. In addition to his numerous community activities Ullman also served as president and then lay rabbi of the city's reform congregation at Temple Emanu-El. In 1994 the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Japan-America Society of Alabama opened the Samuel Ullman Museum in Birmingham's Southside neighborhood.