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Jon Brower Minnoch
Minnoch (date unknown)
Born	(1941-09-29)September 29, 1941 Bainbridge Island, Washington, U.S.
Died	September 10, 1983(1983-09-10) (aged 41) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Burial place	Mount Pleasant Cemetery, King County, Washington 47°38′36″N 122°21′59″W / 47.64328°N 122.36626°W / 47.64328; -122.36626
Alma mater	Bothell High School
Occupation	Taxi driver
Years active	1978–1983
Known for	Heaviest person ever recorded (1,400 lb or 635 kg or 100 st)
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Spouses	Carolyn Jean McArdle ​ ​(m. 1963; div. 1980)​ Shirley Ann Griffen ​(m. 1982)​
Children	2
Honours	Heaviest Man (Guinness World Record) Greatest Weight Differential - Married Couple (Guinness World Record)
Signature

Jon Brower Minnoch (September 29, 1941 – September 10, 1983) was an American man who was the heaviest recorded human in history, weighing approximately 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone) at his peak. Obese since childhood, Minnoch normally weighed 800–900 lb (363–408 kilograms; 57–64 stone) during his adult years. He owned a taxi company and worked as a driver around his home in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

In an attempt to lose weight, Minnoch went on a vegetable-only diet under a doctor's orders. As a result, Minnoch was bedridden for about three weeks before finally agreeing to go to a hospital in March 1978. It took over a dozen firefighters to transport him to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Doctors diagnosed Minnoch with a massive edema, and an endocrinologist estimated his size to be approximately 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone). His physicians placed him on a 1,200 kcal (5,000 kJ) per day diet where, after around two years in the hospital, he lost over 900 lb (408 kg; 64 st)—the largest documented human weight loss at the time. After leaving the hospital, Minnoch regained much of the weight and died of cardiac arrest in September 1983, weighing nearly 800 lb (363 kg; 57 st) at his death. Minnoch's casket took up two burial spots at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle.

Life

Early and personal life

Minnoch was born in 1941 and lived in Bainbridge Island, WA. His father was named John Minnoch and his mother was named June Brower. Minnoch suffered from obesity since childhood, suggesting a genetic cause for his condition. At the age of 12, Minnoch weighed 294 lb (133 kilograms; 21.0 stone). By age 22, he weighed 392 lb (178 kilograms; 28.0 stone) and became 700 lb (320 kilograms; 50 stone) in 1963. Minnoch usually weighed 800–900 lb (363–408 kilograms; 57–64 stone) and was about 80% fat. He stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) in height. Minnoch said water retention was the primary cause of his obesity.

Despite his condition, Minnoch tried to live a conventional life. He drove taxi cabs for 17 years and married his wife, Carolyn Jean McArdle, in 1963. The couple operated the Bainbridge Island Taxi Co. together. In March 1978, Minnoch weighed almost 1,300 lb (590 kilograms; 93 stone) more than his 110 lb (50 kilograms; 8 stone) wife, breaking the record for the greatest weight disparity between a married couple. Minnoch and McArdle divorced in 1980 and he remarried Shirley Ann Griffen in 1982. He fathered two children.

Hospitalizations and death

Minnoch eventually "got so tired" of being heavy that he decided to cut his food intake to "almost nothing". Under a doctor's prescription, Minnoch went on a 600-calorie-a-day diet of only vegetables. Minnoch also took large doses of a diuretic that failed to eliminate excess fluid in his body. After about three weeks of weakness and being bedridden, Minnoch consented to his wife's pleas to enter a hospital. Minnoch was admitted to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle in March 1978, suffering from heart and respiratory failure. Firefighters were forced to remove a window at Minnoch's home and place him on a thick piece of plywood. It took over a dozen firemen, rescue personnel, and a specially modified stretcher to transport him to the hospital. There, he was placed on two beds pushed together, and it took 13 people to roll him over.

At the hospital, Minnoch was diagnosed with a massive edema, a condition in which the body accumulates excess extracellular fluid. Due to his poor health, measuring Minnoch's weight with a scale was impossible. However, endocrinologist Robert Schwartz estimated his weight to be about 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone). Minnoch reached a peak body mass index (BMI) of 186. According to Schwartz, Minnoch was "by at least 300 pounds the heaviest person ever reported," and "probably the most unusual thing about case was the fact that he lived." Minnoch's doctors were unsure how he got so large. Minnoch spent several days on a respirator. In April 1978, Minnoch's doctors described his medical state as "critical." Schwartz said Minnoch displayed symptoms of pickwickian syndrome, where insufficient breathing causes one's level of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream to rise.

Minnoch remained in the hospital for two years and was put on a diet of 1,200 kcal (5,000 kJ) per day. When discharged from the hospital, Minnoch weighed 476 lb (216 kg; 34 st), having lost 924 lb (419 kg; 66 st), the largest human weight loss ever documented at the time. Minnoch hoped to eventually reach a weight of about 210 lb (95 kilograms; 15 stone), stating, "I've waited 37 years to get this chance at a new life." Minnoch soon started to gain weight again. He was readmitted to the hospital just over a year later in October 1981, after his weight increased to 952 lb (432 kg; 68 st). Minnoch managed to gain 200 lb (91 kg; 14 st) in just seven days. He died 23 months later on September 10, 1983, aged 41. At the time of his death, he weighed 798 lb (362 kg; 57 st). According to his death certificate, Minnoch's immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest with respiratory failure and restrictive lung disease/obesity as contributing factors. Minnoch was buried in a wooden casket made of plywood 3⁄4 inch (20 mm) thick and lined with cloth. The coffin took up two cemetery plots, and around 11 men were needed to transport Minnoch's casket to his burial place at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

See also

• Epidemiology of obesity

Notes

1. While Minnoch was the heaviest person in history, Robert Earl Hughes (1926–1958) holds the record, according to Guinness World Records, for the largest "precisely measured weight for a human" at 1,069 lb (485 kilograms; 76.4 stone).

1. McArdle preferred to be called Jean.

References

1. ^ "Obituaries". Bainbridge Island Review. Vol. 114, no. 47. November 28, 2014. p. A33. ISSN 1053-2889. OCLC 849658486.
2. Multiple sources:
   • Newsholme, Eric; Leech, Anthony (September 9, 2011). Functional Biochemistry in Health and Disease. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-119-96524-4. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person recorded in the Guinness Book of Records was John Brower Minnoch...
   • Wright, James D. (May 11, 2018). Lost Souls: Manners and Morals in Contemporary American Society (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351011617. ISBN 978-1-351-01159-4. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person ever documented was Jon Brower Minnoch, who died in 1983. At his peak, Minnoch stood 6'1'' tall and weighed about 1400 pounds...
   • Hamid, Tarek K. A. (2009). Thinking in Circles About Obesity. New York: Springer. p. 321. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09469-4. ISBN 978-0-387-09468-7. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The fattest human on record, Jon Minnoch of Bainbridge Island, Washington, weighed an estimated 1400 lb...
   • Olds, Tim (2015). "Superphysiques". Australasian Science. 36 (5): 40. doi:10.3316/ielapa.540732956328695. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The heaviest person who ever lived, American John Minnoch (1941–83), weighed 635 kg.
   • Williams, David R. (October 31, 2007). What is Safe?: Risks of Living in a Nuclear Age. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84755-236-5. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The world's heaviest man weighed 100 stone (J.B. Minnoch, 1983, in USA)...
   • Bondeson, Jan (2018). The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-7629-6. Retrieved May 30, 2023. The world's heaviest person, the American Jon Brower Minnoch (1941-1983) weighed in at 100 stone...
3. Nickell, Joe (2005). Secrets of the Sideshows. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-8131-2358-5. JSTOR j.ctt2jcf40.
4. Keller, Kathleen (January 24, 2008). Encyclopedia of Obesity. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. p. 510. ISBN 978-1-4522-6585-8. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
5. ^ "Department of Health, Marriage Certificates, 1968-1998 - Jon - B - Minnoch - Et Al". Washington State Digital Archives. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
6. Allardyce, Claire S. (2012). Fat Chemistry: The Science behind Obesity. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 978-1-78262-581-0. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
7. ^ Fahy, Thomas (April 2017). "Disturbing Appetites: Food, Fatness, and 1980s American Culture in Stephen King's Thinner". The Journal of Popular Culture. 50 (2). Wiley-Blackwell: 312. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12509. ISSN 0022-3840. LCCN sf80000702. OCLC 1754751. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
8. Roberts, William Clifford (1991). "Human records and a tribute to the Guinness Book of World Records". The American Journal of Cardiology. 68 (2). Elsevier: 288–289. doi:10.1016/0002-9149(91)90770-L. ISSN 0002-9149. LCCN 58041185. OCLC 00850121. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
9. Shell, Ellen Ruppel (2003). The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. New York: Grove Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8021-4033-3. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
10. ^ McDermott, Michael T. (2013), "Interesting endocrine facts and figures", Endocrine Secrets (6 ed.), Philadelphia: Elsevier, p. 521, doi:10.1016/b978-1-4557-4975-1.00071-1, ISBN 978-1-4557-4975-1, retrieved May 23, 2023
11. ^ "Bainbridge Island man down to 540 and losing". Ellensburg Daily Record. UPI. January 19, 1979. p. 14. ISSN 2834-1872. OCLC 17308766.
12. ^ Roberts, Larry (July 7, 1979). "900 pounds down, 265 to go". Wisconsin State Journal. UPI. p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.
13. "Kitsap County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1860-2014 - Jon Brower Minnoch - Carolyn Jean Mcardle". Washington State Digital Archives. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
14. "Greatest weight differential - married couple". Guinness World Records. Jim Pattison Group. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
15. "Department of Health, Divorce Certificates, 1968-1998 - Minnoch - Jon - B - Et Al". Washington State Digital Archives. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
16. ^ Baker, Rose (June 2010). "The Problem of Obesity: can Mathematics help?" (PDF). Mathematics Today. 46. Institute of Mathematics and its Applications: 141. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
17. ^ "900-lb. man hospitalized". Madison Capital Times. Associated Press. March 30, 1978. p. 6. OCLC 7351334. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.
18. "900 Pound Man Said Critical". Gettysburg Times. Associated Press. April 5, 1978. p. 9. OCLC 12443209. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.
19. ^ "Heaviest man ever". Guinness World Records. Jim Pattison Group. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
20. "World Records". The Boston Globe. May 6, 1990. p. 400. ISSN 0743-1791. OCLC 66652431. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
21. Certificate of Death, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, retrieved June 3, 2023
22. "800-pound man buried". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs. Associated Press. September 16, 1983. pp. A4. OCLC 26432381. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.

• 1941 births
• 1983 deaths
• Deaths from congestive heart failure
• Obesity in the United States
• People from Bainbridge Island, Washington
• World record holders
• American taxi drivers