I concur.
Saw a documentary recently which covered Hawking's theories about black holes (they are exit points from this universe - that's what I'd "guessed" too so loved the programme). He was ostricised from the "community" and not taken seriously, because his ideas simply would not translate into mathematical formulae which can be written on a blackboard and proven. Yet.
Of course experimentation, observation is the cornerstone of scientific research so not knocking that, but I have a feeling that solving the mysteries of the origins of the universe isn't something that will ever be able to be written down on a blackboard.
And his greatest triumph, I think, is to not only overcome the disabilities he had to keep working at it, but to be able to look at things in a much more abstracted manner than "traditional" science lends itself to.