Categotry Archives: Extraordinary People

At 111, Emma Taylor was the ninth-oldest person in the U.S. and the 18th-oldest in the world. She died on Tuesday.
Taylor survived an outbreak of Spanish flu in 1918, wrote an autobiography and taught home economics and business for almost four decades. After she retired, she traveled to 32 countries.
An independent woman, Taylor jokingly attributed her longevity to staying single.

You’re the heir to a broadcasting empire. What do you do with your fortune? Well, if you’re Priscilla “Patsy” Bulitt Collins, you give it away.
Her philanthropy roster was impressive by anyone’s standards. She gave $800,000 to save a four-mile stretch of land along the Yakima River from logging. She and her sister Harriet donated the radio station (98.1 KING-FM) to a nonprofit arts collective in order to keep classical music on the dial. She bought the mansion where her mother grew up and then donated it to the historical society. She even financed a low-income housing project to be built next door.
Her life, while rich with money, was also filled with pain. But Collins countered that pain with a generous spirit. One of her boyfriends died in World War II; in response, Collins donated a landscaped grove to serve as a memorial to those Washington soldiers who died in war. Her father died of cancer, so she paid tribute to him by donating $2 million to the Seattle Public Library Foundation (the library will name its history and biography collection after him).
Collins died on Wednesday of complications from cancer. She was 82.

John Heidler was a chemical engineer with a passion for the education system in his small, Illinois town.
In the ’70s, he was elected as the founding member of the Johnsburg School District 12 Board. He helped to design and construct the Johnsburg High School in Johnsburg, Ill. (pop. 4,631). And for the past 20 years, Heidler read the names of all the seniors who graduated from that school. When he grew too sick to attend this year’s graduation ceremonies, Heidler signed all the diplomas from his bed.
Heidler died of mesothelioma, a cancer related to asbestos exposure, on June 16. He was 66.

Gloria Barinholtz, who founded Adopt-A-Pet in 1981, died on Friday after suffering a heart attack. She was 75.
Adopt-A-Pet places abandoned animals in foster homes until they can be adopted. Over the past 22 years, Barinholtz helped place more than 11,000 cats and dogs in new homes.

Italy’s oldest man died at the age of 112 on Friday.
Giovanni Frau was a farmer in Orroli, Sardinia. He attributed his longevity to homegrown food.
“He farmed all of his food. The bread he ate was his bread; the wine, from his vineyard,” said Raffaele Moi, Frau’s grandson.
Sardinia has the world’s highest ratio of residents over the age of 100, according to Guinness World Records.