11 replies to this topic

[reason]

From ExI, no media pieces yet:

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Steve Harris reports on another list:

Dr. Roy Walford, pioneer in techniques of calorie restriction for extension of life span, has died in UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital today of complications of ALS, a rare muscle wasting disease with no well-established modifiable risk factors. Dr. Walford was two months short of his 80th birthday. Present were Dr. Walford's daughter Lisa and son Peter, as well as friends of the family. Dr. John Braun of UCLA plans to raise funds for a endowed chair at UCLA in Dr. Walford's honor. Funeral arrangements have not been announced, but cremation is planned for the body, with scattering of ashes at sea.

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Needless to say, this doesn't invalidate any of his CR work. If you get unlucky with rare and poorly understood diseases, you get unlucky. I believe that he blamed his time in Biosphere for that, although the timing could have been coincidental.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[John Doe]

Wow. It is possible that without the CR he would have lived an even shorter life.

How awful, though, to practice CR and receive no benefit. :(

[PaulH]

My gosh, this is so sad. He was one of my heros, and I was lucky enough to spend time with while him at Extro 3. I feel speechless right now. :(

And I thought he would have made arrangments with a cryonics company.

[Bruce Klein]

Sad indeed... condolences to Dr Walford's family.

One would think cryonics to be logical for Walford, however, I noticed in an interview (on Closer To Truth) where he alludes to the idea of longer life (not sure how many years) as being optimal... but not immortality.


http://www.walford.com/

[quadclops]

A great loss to those who knew him and to ageing research, I'm sure. So sad, especially when cut down by an unexpected disease. :(

From his pictures though, for a guy pushing eighty, he sure looked solid.

[reason]

I posted to Fight Aging! on the topic earlier today:

http://www.fightagin...ives/000099.php

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[kerr_avon]

My gosh, this is so sad.  He was one of my heros, and I was lucky enough to spend time with while him at Extro 3.  I feel speechless right now. :(

And I thought he would have made arrangments with a cryonics company.

My thoughts exactly. I was surprised to hear that he's being cremated. At least the news blurb that's been circulating has the "no known modifiable risk factors" line. This should minimize the amount of smug gloating in the media. I can almost hear it now though, "see this calorie restriction stuff doesn't work, the guy who wrote all those books didn't even make 80"

[reason]

They've changed his website now, and it includes a place to leave tributes:

http://roy.walford.com

There will be a wake on Sunday 2nd May:

http://www.fightagin...ives/000102.php

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[faith_machine]

(I wanted to meet Roy Walford before he died. I have failed, and I must never procastinate like this again).

... "Roy Walford, to me, was the greatest living life-extension scientist. He affected my life deeply. I thought about him several times a day without fail; always when I had to eat, and I often wondered what he was like in real life. Finally, I was sad to here he did not try to cryonically suspend himself... I will miss his spirit for the rest of my life...

He was my greatest living hero".
-BRENT ERSKINE

[hoffman]

A really sad happpening.
I really admired the man.
I must admit I feel the world has lost an inspiring force in life extension and general health.
I started practising calorie restriction a few years after reading one of his books. I know he did say about is illness that people who are interested in life extension should not be deterred by his illnes.To use his own words one sick rat does not refute a research programme( he was referring to his longivity research with rats).
I think it would be a nice gesture of respect for his life and his family for all those who were interested in his research to leave a tribute on his website wwww.walford.com
Brian Booth

[Bruce Klein]

From: "Steve Harris"
References: <20040504090001.25662.qmail@rho.pair.com>
Subject: Public Statement on Roy Walford and Cryonics, by Lisa Walford (lisa@walford.com)
Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 18:20:17 -0700

Public Statement for the Life Extension Community by Lisa
Walford (lisa@walford.com), Regarding the Death of her
Father, Roy Walford:

Roy was interested in being cryopreserved under the best of
conditions, with immediate circulatory bypass at the
hospital or hospice. We were in the process of signing up
and negotiating terms to meet his pre-requisites.
Specifically, he did not think cryonics with brain ischemia
longer than a couple of hours was worth the effort.

He suffered a sudden and unexpected accidental aspiration,
which resulted in hypotension and a cerebral anoxic event
which put him in a vegetative coma, from which a very
careful neurological exam indicated he would not recover.
Over two days, damage to most of his cerebral cortex proved
extensive on MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging. His EEG
showed burst-suppression activity only, also indicating
severe cortical damage. Given that he had expressed
misgivings at ischemia times in hours, it was decided that
an ischemia time of days certainly had resulted in brain
damage which would have been completely unacceptable to Roy.
Therefore, his agent for medical power of attorney, me,
decided that when life support was withdrawn, Roy would not
be an appropriate candidate for a "last minute" third-party
signup for cryopreservation.

It was also the Power of Attorney who choose to cremate,
rather than donate the body to science. Roy had not
specified a preference either way.

End of Statement

[Shannon Vyff]

Roy was a great person, he personally emailed and sent text to my phone to show his support when my husband was being deployed with the National Guard. I was at the time making and sending mega-muffins to my husband in packages, as I had when he went through basic training. I was saddened when Roy died in a manner that he would not be able to be cryonically preserved. I appreciate all he did to influence the life extension community, to launch the world of calorie restriction --he will always be remembered, by many to whom he touched their lives, I being one.