Jon Brower Minnoch

Life

Minnoch was born in 1941 in Seattle, Washington, to John Minnoch and June (Brower), weighing about 7 lb at birth. His family moved to a Bellingham hotel apartment when he was an infant, and he was an only child. His father worked as a machinist and died of a heart attack in 1962; his mother, a Seattle Pacific University graduate, worked as a registered nurse and later a telephone operator, dying in 1986. His grandfather Peter emigrated from Scotland to Ogden City, Utah, in 1876 with the Latter-Day Saints movement.

Minnoch suffered from obesity since childhood, weighing 294 lb at age 12, 392 lb by age 22, and reaching 700 lb in 1963. He usually weighed 800–900 lb and stood 6 ft tall, with a body fat percentage of about 80%. Minnoch attributed his obesity to water retention, though British obesity specialist David Haslam contended the retention was a consequence of his severe weight. Despite his condition, Minnoch stated he was "in no way handicapped" and lived a conventional life.

He attended Bothell High School, drove taxi cabs for 17 years, and on December 29, 1960, committed second-degree burglary. He married Jean McArdle in 1963, and together they operated the Bainbridge Island Taxi Co., the island's only cab company. A friend described Minnoch as a "warm and funny family man." In March 1978, he weighed 12 times his 110 lb wife, setting a record for greatest weight disparity between a married couple. He divorced McArdle in 1980 and married Shirley Ann Griffin in 1982, fathering two sons, John and Jason.

Did You Know?

• Minnoch's peak weight of approximately 1400 lb was estimated by endocrinologist Robert Schwartz, who said he was 'probably more than that' and 'by at least 300 pounds the heaviest person ever reported.'
• It took over a dozen firefighters and a specially modified stretcher to transport Minnoch to the hospital in March 1978; at the hospital, thirteen attendants were needed to roll him over.
• Minnoch lost 924 lb during a two-year hospital stay on a 1200 kcal per day diet—the largest documented human weight loss at the time.
• After leaving the hospital, Minnoch regained weight so rapidly that he gained 200 lb in just seven days, reaching 952 lb by October 1981.
• Minnoch's casket was made of 3/4-inch plywood lined with cloth and took up two burial spots at Mount Pleasant Cemetery; about 11 men were needed to carry it.