The Immortalist

I was born on August 9, 1963 in Quincy, MA. I grew up as an avid science-fiction reader, and although I'm not sure how, I learned of cryonics sometime in my early teens. For a short period of time I was even an "Associate Member" of the Cryonics Association. I entered college early with dreams of becoming an astro-physicist and perhaps even an astronaut. However, during my sophomore year I realized college was beyond my financial abilities and extremely reluctantly dropped out. I eventually became a truck driver and for many years have worked for my father's small trucking company. Although involved with "normal" freight transportation, the company also specializes in the delivery of movie film and concession supplies to movie theaters throughout New England. Craving intellectual challenges, several years ago I returned to school and studied computer programming. For almost the last three years I have been employed as a programmer at a large collection agency located just outside of Boston. On weekends I still drive trucks making deliveries to theaters in RI and CT. That probably makes me the only truck driver-programmer-cryonicist in the world.

Besides science-fiction, I've always been interested in martial arts. I presently attend the Shaolin Tai Chi Praying Mantis Institute in Avon, MA where I have had the honor of studying under Sifu Hui Chiang, who has taught me a great deal more than "just martial arts". Besides my erudition of tai-chi and kungfu, I also hold a 2nd degree black-belt in Kempo karate and have attended qigong and chin-na classes at the Boston headquarters of the YMAA under the tutelage of the world renowned Dr. Yang. Divorced a couple of years ago, I have no doubt that the calming influence of martial arts got me through a very troubling and turbulent time of my life.
Back in early 1993, I and my then girlfriend and future wife bought a 9 week-old Akita puppy which we named Thor.

Thor and I quickly became best friends and I watched my 19 pound cute puppy become an almost 140 pound majestic monster. We moved a couch into a spare room and our dog had his own bedroom. Thor was the most intelligent dog I have ever met. Although extremely "dog-aggressive", he was very gentle around puppies and small children. He liked to watch television and would often try to lick the puppies he saw on the screen, but tried to bite any large dogs or any other kind of animals, even fish! We spent many Saturdays hiking in the nearby Blue Hills. He was perhaps the most beautiful dog I have ever seen and everywhere we went people stopped and gawked at him or asked if they could pat him. Although large and intimidating, he loved to be patted and was friendly to everyone but mailmen and paperboys.

In March of 2004, I began to notice a problem with his rear legs and eventually took him to the Angel Memorial Hospital in Boston. After being examined by specialists and even getting an MRI, he was diagnosed with Degenerative Meliopathy. DM is a very slow degenerative disease of the spine causing eventual paralysis to the rear legs. Unfortunately, there is no cure for DM. Knowing that Thor's time was limited, I finally decided I had to get serious about my "cryonics future". Although I had always planned on being frozen, like many people I hadn't actually done anything about it. I quickly joined the Cryonics Institute as an Option One member and signed my cryonics contract. I also found a very caring acupuncturist that began weekly treatments on Thor's condition, besides the many supplements and medications that he had been receiving. In the last few months of his life, Thor began to have a very bad time on our daily walks with me having to often hold his tail to help him get around.

Finally, his condition took a dramatic downturn. With the heaviest heart I have ever had, I packed up my van with my girlfriend Cheryl and my now twelve year old best friend. On the night of February 8 we headed out towards Michigan knowing this would be our last ride with Thor. By 6:00pm the next day we arrived at a motel just a few miles from the Cryonics Institute. That night the three of us shared a meatball pizza and then went to sleep in the motel room. The next morning, after meeting for about an hour at the CI, we followed Andy Zawacki to a nearby veterinarian, followed in another car by Ben Best. After waiting with Thor outside for a little while until a room became available, I walked Thor on his final steps into the building to meet an extremely humane veterinarian and his assistant. With Cheryl, Andy, and Ben looking on, I held my beloved Thor until the very end.

We quickly loaded my little buddy into Andy's truck and headed back to the CI. While Andy, Ben, and Dr. Yuri Pichugin, began to work on Thor, Cheryl and I were greeted outside by Robert Ettinger who was gracious enough to come down to meet us. We spent a few hours talking about cryonics, grief, and reminiscing about Thor.

Recently my 86 year old grandmother has also become a member of the CI and we hope to sign her contract soon. I'm not sure what the rest of my family thinks, but I know some of them think we are crazy. I argue the logic of cryonics with many of my friends and coworkers. Most disagree with me. I am truly astonished not more do agree with me as I have always believed that there really isn't any alternative, and besides, since you don't pay much until your death, what do you have to lose? Even if I believed the chances of cryonics working were one in a million, that's still better chances than cremation or the grave. I believe that there is no limit to what medical science will be capable of and think that immortality may be only 20-40 years away.