  This paper starts with a biographical sketch of the life of Josef Meixner.
Then his motivations to work on orthogonal polynomials and special functions
are reviewed. Meixner's 1934 paper introducing the Meixner and
Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials is discussed in detail. Truksa's forgotten 1931
paper, which already contains the Meixner polynomials, is mentioned. The paper
ends with a survey of the reception of Meixner's 1934 paper.
