X-Message-Number: 17292
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 03:34:55 -0600
From: Fred Chamberlain <>
Subject: Reduction in Alcor Participation

MEMORANDUM

Date:  August 16, 2001
From:  Fred Chamberlain
To:    CryoNet

Below are excerpts from a communication to the Alcor Life Extension
Foundation Board and other related organizations as of this date.  I am
also ending my subscription to CryoNet at this time, for the same reasons
that I am reducing my participation in the activities of the Alcor Life
Extension Foundation.

*****

To better assist Linda Chamberlain with her prevention of recurrent cancer,
through lessening my contact and thus hers with internal matters at Alcor
(sources of great stress), I will cease to serve on Alcor's Board of
Directors as of the upcoming annual meeting.  A new corporate Secretary for
Alcor will be needed to replace me, and in the interests of Linda's health
it will be better for me not to serve even as an Advisor to the Alcor Board.

Last night, Linda resigned as co-manager of Cryonics LLC, to eliminate
those stresses also, and I agreed to take her place in that role.  With
time, if I were needed to serve on Alcor's Patient Care Trust, that might
be a possibility, since both my father and Linda's mother are among Alcor's
"passengers" and their safety will remain of extreme importance to us.

Linda Chamberlain's colon cancer, in my mind, is a price paid for the
frustrations she faced during five years of concerted efforts to build a
stronger, cleaner and safer Alcor.  It is a price paid for caring too much,
and for attempting to operate Alcor on the basis of principles vs.
politics.  It is a price paid for demanding of others at least a measure of
what she demanded of herself, and being overly concerned that this was too
much to expect.  Linda could not escape an incessant worry that too many
things remained to be done and that too few people cared to do them.  She
developed checklist systems for managing standbys, transports and
cryoperfusions, created PowerPoint presentations for module based training
systems and taught the courses, repaired membership record systems which
had been neglected, co-edited Alcor's magazines for some time, created
scientific and medical advisory boards, organized conferences, solved
budget problems by earning the confidence of members to donate up to
$100,000/year, recruited an increasing number of medical professionals to
Alcor's teams, and led field standbys/transports and the subsequent
cryoprotective procedures which entailed 60-80 hours without sleep.   These
pressures were too high a price to pay.

About all we can do at this point, if we wish, is to say "Well done!" and
wish Linda success in staying free of cancer.  Hopefully, away from Alcor,
she will find other less demanding responsibilities to which she can devote
her energies and creativity.  It virtually broke her heart to resign as the
President of Alcor, after only a few months in that position, and the
circumstances which forced her to make that choice will be an enduring
sadness for us both.  It is too bad that the circumstances could not have
been otherwise.

It was a privilege to serve Alcor as its President for over four years.  If
it seems that I have devoted most of the above discussion to Linda's
participation, it is because I think that she deserves the greatest credit
of the two of us, for whatever we managed to accomplish.  Where I provided
useful ideas, Linda made them a reality.  When I saw dangers, she fought
them effectively.  In cases where things were awry and needed fixing, she
pursued the remedies relentlessly.  Were it not for Jerry Lemler, MD's
availability to fill Linda's shoes, I would sorely fear for Alcor's future.
 As things stand, Linda and I can both step away from Alcor and feel
confident that it is, at least while Dr. Lemler remains at the helm, in
good hands.


Thank you, Jerry, for being there when Alcor needed you. May your health
and spirits remain high, always.  Linda and I are committed to be there for
you in an advisory capacity, as long as you are Alcor's President, whether
or not we may be otherwise involved in Alcor's activities.  You are an
inspiration to us both!


Fred Chamberlain  

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17292