Jon Brower Minnoch

Jon Brower Minnoch (September 29, 1941 – September 4, 1983) was an American man who was the heaviest recorded human in history, weighing approximately at his peak. Obese since childhood, Minnoch normally weighed during his adult years. He owned a taxi company and worked as a driver around his home in Bainbridge Island, Washington. In an attempt to lose weight, Minnoch went on a per day diet under a doctor's orders. As a result, Minnoch was bedridden for about three weeks before finally agreeing to go to a hospital in March 1978. It took over a dozen firefighters to transport him to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Doctors diagnosed Minnoch with a massive edema, and an endocrinologist estimated his size to be approximately . His physicians placed him on a per day diet where, after around two years in the hospital, he lost over —the largest documented human weight loss at the time. After leaving the hospital, Minnoch regained much of the weight and died in September 1983, weighing nearly at his death. Minnoch's casket took up two burial spots at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle. Minnoch was born in 1941 in Seattle, Washington, to John Minnoch and June ( Brower). When Minnoch was an infant, his parents moved from Seattle to an apartment at a Bellingham hotel. He was an only child. Minnoch's father worked as a machinist and died of a heart attack in 1962. 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. Minnoch suffered from obesity since childhood. At the age of 12, he weighed . By age 22, he weighed and became in 1963. Minnoch usually weighed and stood in height. He had a body fat percentage of about 80%. Minnoch said water retention was the primary cause of his obesity.