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Jon Brower Minnoch
Born	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, Seattle, King County, Washington 47°38′36″N 122°21′59″W / 47.64328°N 122.36626°W / 47.64328; -122.36626
Occupation	Taxi driver
Known for	Heaviest person ever recorded (1,400 lb or 635 kg or 100 st)
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Spouse	Jeannette Minnoch ​(m. 1978)​
Children	2

Jon Brower Minnoch (September 29, 1941 – September 10, 1983) was an American man who was the heaviest human in history, weighing approximately 1,400 lb (635 kilograms; 100 stone) at his peak.

Life

Minnoch was born in 1941 and lived in Bainbridge Island, WA. 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 of 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. Minnoch stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) in height. Despite his condition, Minnoch tried to live a conventional life. He worked as a taxi driver for 17 years and married his 110-pound wife, Jeannette, in March 1978. At this time, Minnoch was 12 times his wife's weight, breaking the record for the greatest weight disparity between husband and wife. He fathered two children.

Hospitalizations and death

Suffering from heart and respiratory failure, Minnoch was admitted to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle in March 1978. 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 and 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. Minnoch's hospitalization was caused by a crash diet. He "got so tired" of being heavy that he decided to cut his food intake to "almost nothing". However, for some reason, his body ceased eliminating waste altogether.

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 in excess of 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 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 put on more than 196 lb (89 kg; 14 st) after a seven day eating binge. 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). Minnoch's cause of death was congestive heart failure.

Minnoch was buried in a wood casket made of plywood 3⁄4 of an inch 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

• Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari

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).

References

1. ^ "Heaviest man ever". Guinness World Records. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
2. Hamid, Tarek K. A. (2009). Thinking in Circles About Obesity. New York, NY: Springer. p. 321. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09469-4. ISBN 978-0-387-09468-7.
3. Nickell, Joe (2005). Secrets of the Sideshows. 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. SAGE Publications. p. 510. ISBN 978-1-4522-6585-8.
5. Allardyce, Claire S. (2012). Fat Chemistry: The Science behind Obesity. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 978-1-78262-581-0.
6. Roberts, William Clifford (1991). "Human records and a tribute to the Guinness Book of World Records". The American Journal of Cardiology. 68 (2): 288–289. doi:10.1016/0002-9149(91)90770-L.
7. Shell, Ellen Ruppel (2003). The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Grove Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8021-4033-3.
8. Wright, James D. (May 11, 2018). Lost Souls: Manners and Morals in Contemporary American Society. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-01159-4.
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ "900 pounds down, 265 to go". Wisconsin State Journal. Seattle. UPI. July 7, 1979. p. 3 – via NewspaperArchive.
11. "Greatest weight differential - married couple". Guinness World Records. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
12. ^ Stockman, James A. (January 1992). "Clinical facts and curios". Current Problems in Pediatrics. 22 (1): 54–55. doi:10.1016/0045-9380(92)90040-6.
13. ^ Baker, Rose (June 2010). "The Problem of Obesity: can Mathematics help?" (PDF). Mathematics Today. 46. Institute of Mathematics and its Applications: 141.
14. McDermott, Michael T. (2013), "Interesting endocrine facts and figures", Endocrine Secrets, Elsevier, p. 521, doi:10.1016/b978-1-4557-4975-1.00071-1, ISBN 978-1-4557-4975-1, retrieved May 23, 2023
15. O'Neil, Dan (November 3, 1990). "Fantastic Fact File". South Wales Echo. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "800-pound man buried". The Desert Sun. Seattle. Associated Press. September 16, 1983. pp. A4 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.

• 1941 births
• 1983 deaths
• Deaths from edema
• Obesity in the United States
• People from Bainbridge Island, Washington
• World record holders