X-Message-Number: 5574 Date: Fri, 12 Jan 96 16:24:28 From: mike <> Subject: Happy Bedford Day As of today (Jan. 12), James Bedford, the first person cryonically suspended, has been frozen for 29 years. Happy Bedford day to all. (I realize that all of you will read this a day late--sorry I didn't get it out yesterday! Also, for the record, someone was frozen prior to Bedford, in April 1966, but not under controlled conditions, i.e. this a woman who had been embalmed and kept in a mortuary refrigerator for several weeks prior to freezing.--And she only stayed frozen a few months. Bedford has been continuously frozen the whole time, as was verified when he was transferred to a new capsule in 1991.) According to the best information I have, currently there are 63 individuals in cryonic suspension at public cryonics organizations, all of which are in the U.S., and a few others in private hands. Returning to James Bedford, he was maintained by relatives for many years but finally was transferred, in the 1980s, to Alcor where he remains to this day. (For this we can thank Mike Darwin for tracking down his location and dealing with the relatives, who were not cryonicists and were not enthusiastic about having to continue the maintenance by themselves. We may have gotten him just in the nick of time.) We are tentatively planning a celebration for next year to mark the 30th anniversary of Bedford's freezing--maybe we'll see you there! Mike Perry, Alcor Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5574