X-Message-Number: 24785 From: "Ken" <> Subject: RE: # 24145 Robert Nelson [Joesph A Zarka] Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 01:58:02 -0700 In answer to your question, answer 1 is more correct. Bob Nelson was infatuated with the idea of cryonics and worked very hard to make it a reality. He did make some poor decisions, the most obvious one was taking on suspensions without the means to follow them through. He honestly wanted to give his friends; Marie Sweet, Helen Kline and Russ Stanley the suspension they wanted. He kept them in temporary suspension, busting his behind keeping them on dry ice for around two years. Money was not his motivation. When Bowers came around with Nisco and his capsule, he saw an opertunity. Placing the other three in the capsule, to Bob at the time, was a better temporary solution for them than the dry ice storage he had been maintaining. With the money the CSC received from Russ Stanley, Bob purchased a capsule that would hold up to twenty patients. He needed enough income from paying suspensions to get a large vault and keep the large capsule filled with LN2. Unfortunately the Nisco capsule was leaking badly and the money needed to keep it going dried up before he could get the large capsule in service. If there was any dishonesty it was in not telling Bowers that he intended to add other bodies to her capsule, but the capsule was donated to the CSC and it was his to do what he wished with it. Bowers herself abandoned the capsule and failed to pay the required maintenance and storage fees. She sent Bob a letter telling him that she couldn't make payments and washed her hands of it. Bob didn't hear from Bowers again until 1979, after the lawsuit had begun. She won a $35,000 claim against Bob which, in my opinion, she was not entitled to. As for taking advantage of the potential upcoming boom in cryonic suspensions, Bob did prepare for that by starting Cryonic Internment, Inc., and by purchasing the large capsule. While his main vision was to advance cryonics, he was aware of the potential for profit and expected to earn money eventually... who didn't? Bob didn't abandon anybody, he did everything he could to fulfill the wishes of three of his friends and fellow pioneers of the cryonics movement. He did more than anybody else was willing to and failed. His biggest crime was secrecy, and was that such a great crime? Under the circumstances I think not. I view Bob Nelson as a true pioneer in the cryonics movement. His drive and willingness to take chances advanced cryonics much further and faster than it would have been without him. Cryonics at that time was a discussion. Bob made it a reality. The science and people were in place, they just needed a leader and a strong salesman to take it to the next level. Bob fulfilled those roles admirably. Instead of just hammering him for his failures, he should be applauded for is successes. I'll be the first to put my hands together. Will anyone else? Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24785