:Jon Brower Minnoch

File:Jon Minnoch (infant).jpg

Minnoch was born in 1941 in Seattle, Washington, to John Minnoch and June ({{nee}} Brower). He weighed approximately {{convert|7|lb|kg|0|abbr=on}} at birth.{{Cite book |last=Lutwyche |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Lutwyche |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBSLDwAAQBAJ |title=The Pig: A Natural History |date=2019-10-01 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-19533-9 |page=97 |language=en}} When Minnoch was an infant, his parents moved from Seattle to an apartment at a Bellingham hotel.{{Cite news |date=December 4, 1941 |title=Social and Personal |pages=6 |work=The Bellingham Herald |via=Newspapers.com}} He was an only child.{{Cite news |date=February 19, 1986 |title=Obituaries |page=6 |work=Kitsap Sun |via=Newspapers.com}} Minnoch's father worked as a machinist and died of a heart attack in 1962.{{Cite news |date=November 11, 1962 |title=Obituaries |volume=75 |page=36 |work=Ogden Standard Examiner |issue=314 |via=NewspaperArchive}} Minnoch's mother was a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and worked as a registered nurse at Providence Hospital and later as a telephone operator. June died in 1986, three years after her son. Minnoch's grandfather, Peter, was born in Scotland and emigrated to Ogden City, Utah, in 1876 with the Latter-Day Saints movement.{{Cite news |date=September 7, 1905 |title=Death Claims Peter Minnoch |pages=17 |work=Deseret News |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ho0zAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22peter+minnoch%22&pg=PA5&article_id=5910,2155931 |access-date=June 27, 2023 |issn=0745-4724}} File:Jon Brower Minnoch High School yearbook (cropped).jpg's 1958 senior yearbook]]

Minnoch suffered from obesity since childhood.{{Cite book |last=Allardyce |first=Claire S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mGsoDwAAQBAJ |title=Fat Chemistry: The Science behind Obesity |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78262-581-0 |location=Cambridge, UK |language=en |access-date=May 30, 2023}} At the age of 12, he weighed {{convert|294|lb|kg st|abbr=on}}. By age 22, he weighed {{convert|392|lb|kg st|abbr=on}} and became {{convert|700|lb|kg st|abbr=on}} in 1963. Minnoch usually weighed {{convert|800-900|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}}{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=William Clifford |author-link=William Clifford Roberts |date=1991 |title=Human records and a tribute to the Guinness Book of World Records |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/000291499190770L |journal=The American Journal of Cardiology |language=en |publisher=Elsevier |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=288–289 |doi=10.1016/0002-9149(91)90770-L |pmid=2063805 |issn=0002-9149 |lccn=58041185 |oclc=00850121 |access-date=May 30, 2023|url-access=subscription }} and stood {{Convert|6|ft|1|in|abbr=on}} in height. He had a body fat percentage of about 80%.{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Evelyn B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHlUDwAAQBAJ |title=Obesity |date=April 19, 2018 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-5882-6 |edition=2nd |series=Health and Medical Issues Today |location=Santa Barbara, CA |page=29 |language=en |lccn=2017056693}} Minnoch said water retention was the primary cause of his obesity.{{Cite news |date=January 19, 1979 |title=Bainbridge Island man down to 540 and losing |pages=14 |work=Ellensburg Daily Record |agency=UPI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UoJUAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22John+minnoch%22&pg=PA1&article_id=6473,1211318 |issn=2834-1872 |oclc=17308766}} British obesity specialist David Haslam contends Minnoch's water retention was a consequence of his severe weight, not the cause of it.{{Cite book |last1=Haslam |first1=David W. |url=https://archive.org/details/fatgluttonysloth0000hasl/page/32/mode/2up?q=%22minnoch%22 |title=Fat, Gluttony and Sloth: Obesity in Medicine, Art and Literature |last2=Haslam |first2=Fiona |date=2009 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-093-5 |location= |pages=33–36 |oclc=1301962332 |author-link=David Haslam (GP)}}

Despite his condition, Minnoch tried to live a conventional life{{Cite journal |last=Fahy |first=Thomas |date=April 2017 |title=Disturbing Appetites: Food, Fatness, and 1980s American Culture in Stephen King's Thinner |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.12509 |journal=The Journal of Popular Culture |language=en |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=312 |doi=10.1111/jpcu.12509 |issn=0022-3840 |lccn=sf80000702 |oclc=1754751 |access-date=May 30, 2023|url-access=subscription }} and stated that he was "in no way handicapped". He attended Bothell High School{{Cite book |url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Jon_Minnoch&event=_washington-usa_50&name_x=1_1&successSource=Search&queryId=ccf72fabdd8624b6f50466e4f1df6784 |title=The Cougar |publisher=Bothell Senior High School |year=1958 |page=68 |url-access=subscription |via=Ancestry.com}} and drove water taxis for 17 years.{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Larry |date=July 7, 1979 |title=900 pounds down, 265 to go |pages=3 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |agency=UPI |location= |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-jul-07-1979-3906365/ |access-date=May 30, 2023 |via=NewspaperArchive}} He married his wife, Jean McArdle, in 1963.{{Cite web |title=Kitsap County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1860-2014 - Jon Brower Minnoch - Carolyn Jean Mcardle |url=https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/2E8D75881804E8F0D735985BF4BFBA75 |access-date=June 3, 2023 |website=Washington State Digital Archives}} The couple operated the Bainbridge Island Taxi Co. together, the only taxi cab on the island at the time. According to a friend, Minnoch had a reputation as a "warm and funny family man" on the island. In March 1978, Minnoch weighed 12 times his {{convert|110|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}} wife, breaking the record for the greatest weight disparity between a married couple.{{Cite web |date= March 1978|title=Greatest weight differential - married couple |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/71291-greatest-weight-differential-married-couple |access-date=May 27, 2023 |website=Guinness World Records |publisher=Jim Pattison Group |language=en-gb}} Minnoch and McArdle divorced in 1980{{Cite web |title=Department of Health, Divorce Certificates, 1968-1998 - Minnoch - Jon - B - Et Al. |url=https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/6D441D1AEBF945ED59325B0498C4D765 |access-date=June 3, 2023 |website=Washington State Digital Archives}} and he married Shirley Ann Griffen in 1982.{{Cite web |title=Department of Health, Marriage Certificates, 1968-1998 - Jon - B - Minnoch - Et Al. |url=https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/3F30535E0B3B4980C885770E81579B66 |access-date=June 3, 2023 |website=Washington State Digital Archives}} He fathered two sons,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKSHvbY5howC |title=Guinness Book of World Records: 1990 |date=1989 |publisher=Sterling Publishing |isbn=978-0-8069-5790-6 |editor-last=McFarlan |editor-first=Donald |page=12 |language=en}} John and Jason.

Minnoch eventually "got so tired" of being heavy that he decided to cut his food intake to "almost nothing". Under a doctor's prescription, he went on a 600-calorie-a-day diet of only vegetables. He 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, he listened to his wife's pleas to enter a hospital.{{Cite news |date=March 30, 1978 |title=900-lb. man hospitalized |pages=6 |work=Madison Capital Times |agency=Associated Press |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-mar-30-1978-3906584/ |access-date=May 30, 2023 |oclc=7351334 |via=NewspaperArchive}} 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 his home and place him on a thick piece of plywood. Minnoch was unable to move or speak.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/1980britannicabo00daum/mode/2up |title=Britannica Book of the Year |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |year=1980 |editor-last=Daume |editor-first=Daphne |location=Chicago |page=53 |isbn=9780852293720 |issn=0068-1156 |lccn=38-12082 |editor-last2=Davis |editor-first2=J.E.}} 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 thirteen attendants to roll him over.File:Minnoch tombstone.jpg reads: "Beloved Husband, Father and Friend".]]

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 his weight with a scale was impossible. However, endocrinologist Robert Schwartz estimated his weight to be about {{convert|1400|lb|kg st|0|abbr=in|lk=off}}. According to Schwartz, he was "probably more than that. He was by at least 300 pounds the heaviest person ever reported", and "probably the most unusual thing about [Minnoch's] case was that he lived". He reached a peak body mass index (BMI) of 186 kg/m²{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=Rose |author-link=Rose Baker |date=June 2010 |title=The Problem of Obesity: can Mathematics help? |url=https://cdn.ima.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MT_2010_The_Problem_of_Obesity.pdf |journal=Mathematics Today |publisher=Institute of Mathematics and its Applications |volume=46 |page=141 |access-date=May 30, 2023}} and spent several days on a respirator. In April 1978, his 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.{{Cite news |date=April 5, 1978 |title=900 Pound Man Said Critical |pages=9 |work=Gettysburg Times |agency=Associated Press |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-apr-05-1978-3906356/ |access-date=May 30, 2023 |oclc=12443209 |via=NewspaperArchive}}

Minnoch remained in the hospital for two years and was put on a diet of {{convert|1200|kcal|kJ|abbr=on|lk=on}} per day. When discharged from the hospital, he weighed {{convert|476|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}}, having lost {{convert|924|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}}, the largest human weight loss ever documented at the time.{{Citation |last=McDermott |first=Michael T. |title=Interesting endocrine facts and figures |date=2013 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9781455749751000711 |work=Endocrine Secrets |pages=521–524 |access-date=May 23, 2023 |edition=6 |place=Philadelphia |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1016/b978-1-4557-4975-1.00071-1 |isbn=978-1-4557-4975-1|url-access=subscription }} He hoped to eventually reach a weight of about {{convert|210|lb|kg st|0|abbr=in|lk=off}}, stating, "I've waited 37 years to get this chance at a new life". Despite this, he soon started to gain weight again. He was readmitted to the hospital just over a year later in October 1981,{{Cite web |date= March 1978|title=Heaviest man ever |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-man/ |access-date=May 28, 2023 |website=Guinness World Records |publisher=Jim Pattison Group |language=en-gb}} after his weight increased to {{convert|952|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}}; he had managed to gain {{convert|200|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}} in just seven days.{{Cite news |date=May 6, 1990 |title=World Records |pages=400 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-world-records/125491726/ |url-status= |access-date=May 30, 2023 |issn=0743-1791 |oclc=66652431 |via=Newspapers.com}} He died 23 months later on September 4, 1983, aged 41.{{Cite news |date=September 16, 1983 |title=Deaths |page=13A |work=Evening Independent |agency=Associated Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52ZQAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA9 |access-date=June 28, 2023 |oclc=2720408}} At the time of his death, he weighed {{convert|798|lb|kg st|0|abbr=on}}. According to his death certificate, Minnoch's immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest, with respiratory failure and restrictive lung disease as contributing factors.{{Citation |title=Certificate of Death |url=https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/DigitalObject/Download/e91486d8-3997-43dd-a2b1-b4c3e6cfa3f7 |access-date=June 3, 2023 |publisher=Washington State Department of Social and Health Services}} He was buried in a wooden casket made of plywood {{convert|3/4|in|mm|round=5}} thick and lined with cloth. The coffin took up two cemetery plots, and around 11 men were needed to transport his casket to his burial place at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.{{Cite news |date=September 16, 1983 |title=800-pound man buried |pages=A4 |work=The Desert Sun |agency=Associated Press |location=Palm Springs |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19830916.2.33&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- |access-date=May 30, 2023 |oclc=26432381 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}

• Daniel Lambert
• Epidemiology of obesity

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Multiple sources:

• {{Cite book |last1=Newsholme |first1=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L24t58739VIC |title=Functional Biochemistry in Health and Disease |last2=Leech |first2=Anthony |date=September 9, 2011 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-119-96524-4 |location=Chichester, UK |language=en |quote=The heaviest person recorded in the Guinness Book of Records was John Brower Minnoch... |author-link=Eric Newsholme |access-date=May 30, 2023}}
• {{Cite book |last=Wright |first=James D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sX1aDwAAQBAJ |title=Lost Souls: Manners and Morals in Contemporary American Society |date=May 11, 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-01159-4 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781351011617 |edition=1 |location=New York |quote=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... |author-link=James D. Wright |access-date=May 30, 2023}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hamid |first=Tarek K. A. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-387-09469-4 |title=Thinking in Circles About Obesity |date=2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-09468-7 |location=New York |page=321 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-0-387-09469-4 |access-date=May 30, 2023 |quote=The fattest human on record, Jon Minnoch of Bainbridge Island, Washington, weighed an estimated 1400 lb...}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Olds |first=Tim |date=2015 |title=Superphysiques |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.540732956328695 |journal=Australasian Science |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=40 |access-date=May 30, 2023 |quote=The heaviest person who ever lived, American John Minnoch (1941–83), weighed 635 kg.}}
• {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=David R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oG0oDwAAQBAJ |title=What is Safe?: Risks of Living in a Nuclear Age |date=October 31, 2007 |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |isbn=978-1-84755-236-5 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=69 |language=en |access-date=May 30, 2023 |quote=The world's heaviest man weighed 100 stone (J.B. Minnoch, 1983, in USA)... |author-link=David R. Williams (scientist)}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bondeson |first=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FK2IDwAAQBAJ |title=The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities |date=2018 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1-4456-7629-6 |location=Stroud, UK |language=en |access-date=May 30, 2023 |quote=The world's heaviest person, the American Jon Brower Minnoch (1941-1983) weighed in at 100 stone... |author-link=Jan Bondeson}}

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{{succession box |before=Francis John Lang |title=Heaviest person ever recorded |years=1941–1983 |after=None}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnoch, Jon Brower}}

Category:1941 births

Category:1983 deaths

Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States

Category:Obesity in the United States

Category:People from Bainbridge Island, Washington

Category:World record holders

Category:American taxi drivers

Category:American people of Scottish descent