Tell us about yourself.
Well, I grew up in Miami, Florida. I attended the University of Miami from 1960 to 1964, when I graduated with a double major in Psychology and in American Civilization. I was a teaching and research assistant in the Government department, and for extra curricular activities I was a civil rights and anti-Vietnam war organizer, and edited a new left underground newspaper. I was a draft resister, and won my case in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969.
Initially I planned to be a forensic psychologist and I even completed a psychiatric externship at the Dade County Juvenile Court while I was still an undergraduate. Then I went to work for a year, returned to graduate school, at the University of Miami, to study psychology. I became bored with academia, and decided to become a Unitarian minister. I attended a seminary in Berkeley while working as the Assistant Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley.
When I graduated I was called to be the Senior Minister of what was at that time one of the largest Unitarian churches in the world, the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. I was there seven years and even had my own television and radio show in Hollywood. Then I came back to the San Francisco Bay area as a Unitarian minister for another six years.
I believe I am the Unitarian minister that Keith Henson said on Cryonet was defrocked for advocating cryonics. Actually I wasn't defrocked (although that does sound very sexy). I was encouraged to resign by a committee of the church I was serving at the time and the only reason stated was my advocacy of living forever. This was during the height of the anti-science, anti-technology hysteria of the late seventies and early eighties, which swept through liberal organizations generally. I still have my Unitarian ministerial credentials although I have not been actively involved for some years.
In any case, I returned to forensic psychology, and have had a very interesting and rewarding career, including the opportunity to teach part-time, at the University level. So it all certainly worked out for the best. Today I work full time for a state-funded program for persons who have a psychiatric diagnosis and also have been convicted of one or more major felonies.
How did you first hear about cryonics?
I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room in May 1964, and came across an article titled New Hope for the Dead, by Robert Ettinger which was a summary of his then newly published book The Prospect of Immortality
How long did it take you to join?
I became an associate (non-suspension) member of the Immoralist Society in 1979. In fact I became an associate/non-suspension member of virtually every cryonics organization. I was hoping meanwhile that a cure would be found for the disease of aging before I would need to seriously consider cryonics. In 1989 however, I decided to take Bob Ettinger's advice to not put all your eggs in one basket and I became a suspension member of the American Cryonics Society. Jim Yount signed me up and was very helpful in my making my funding arrangements. That same year I was asked to become the editor of the ACS newsletter. We decided to merge the ACS newsletter and the Immoralist into one publication, and I became the Associate Editor of The Immoralist for a while. I then bought some stock in Trans Time (and also Bio Time) and was elected a member of the Board of Directors of Trans Time. I still own the Trans time (and the Bio Time) stock.
My primary involvement in cryonics at that time was contributing to the newsletter, and trying to mediate a steadily worsening relationship between Trans Time and ACS. Eventually however I gradually withdrew from cryonics activity and dropped out of ACS, frankly to deal with some more pressing personal problems.
All my life I experienced periods of depression so profound that I found it difficult to function. I had tried psychotherapy, even psychoanalysis, and got occasional brief symptomatic relief. In 1995 I finally received both a diagnosis and a medication, Paxil, that literally transformed my life and and even further enriched my confidence in science and progress. (When I introduce myself to new patients now days, I always mention that I, too, have a psychiatric diagnosis manic depression type 11, or depressive illness and that I too depend on psychotropic medication.)
Then I divorced, traveled and moved around a bit, returned to San Francisco, re-married, went back to work and just recently signed up as a suspension member with CI.
Do you have a contract in force?
Yes. Rudi Hoffman got a great deal for me.
How do your relatives feel about your interest in cryonics?
My twin brother knows about my interest in cryonics but ignores it. My son, Jason, has always known about and encouraged my interest in cryonics. When he was 13, in the early 1980s, he submitted a cartoon which became a cover for The Immortalist. Shortly after that, Paul Segall very graciously let him visit his lab, which was then in Paul's garage in Berkeley.
In 1995 Jason completed his Ph.D. in biophysics at UC Davis and now works for a proteonomics company, Molecular Staging. He continues to encourage and respect my interest in cryonics although he does not share it.
My wife (number three) is Russian. When I told her and her mother who lives with us that I have made arrangements to be cryonicly suspended, both said they knew, generally, what cryonics is and that they think cryonics is cutting edge science and makes perfect sense, although neither of them has expressed any personal interest yet.
Do you have any hobbies?
I don't have any hobbies but I do have many interests. I read a lot, both fiction (mysteries) and non-fiction, surf the web, help my wife practice her English, practice my Russian with my mother-in-law, and help them both learn about American culture and capitalist economics.
Do you like to travel?
No.
