Jon Brower Minnoch

Born in September 1941, Minnoch had been obese since childhood and spent his adult years running a taxi company on Bainbridge Island, Washington, typically weighing between 800 and 900 pounds. In March 1978, after three bedridden weeks on a doctor-ordered 600-calorie diet failed, firefighters transported him to the University of Washington Medical Center, where physicians diagnosed severe edema and estimated his weight at roughly 1,400 pounds. Over two years on a 1,200-calorie hospital regimen, he lost more than 900 pounds - the largest documented human weight loss at that time. He regained much of it after discharge and died in September 1983 at nearly 800 pounds. His casket occupied two burial plots.