Last known survivor of the 1906 SF quake dies

[Dennis Donovan]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/05/BAFC15OG9R.DTL&tsp=1

(02-05) 19:50 PST San Francisco -- Herbert Heimie Hamrol was the last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and right up until the minute he died today at the age of 106, he packed every moment as if it were his last.

Mr. Hamrol's still-crisp memories of the smoke and the ruin served as the only true time machine left for a catastrophe most people know only from ancient photographs. But that was only a part of what Mr. Hamrol brought to the plate when he woke up each morning at his home in Daly City.

He was also the oldest known grocery clerk in San Francisco, punching a clock until a week before he died at a local hospital of complications from pneumonia. And if you were lucky enough to talk with him, you would likely learn a thing or two.

"Don't spend every dime you get," he told a Chronicle reporter in 2003.

"Stay away from wild women."

"Wear a tie when you go to work, also a nice shirt."

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Morning Kick

[UpInArms]

2. rest well, Herbert Heimie Hamrol

...

[cobalt1999]

3. "stay away from wild women"

I'd rather not live to 106 then.

[Skittles]

4. as a wild woman

I am thanking you :7

[all.of.me]

5. Wow, that's inspiring!

Working and socializing kept him alive for so long. Makes me want to get out there today and live! RIP, sir, and thank you.

[starroute]

6. Longevity gene, maybe?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203081624.htm

A variation in the gene FOXO3A has a positive effect on the life expectancy of humans, and is found much more often in people living to 100 and beyond – moreover, this appears to be true worldwide.

A research group in the Faculty of Medicine at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (CAU) has now confirmed this assumption by comparing DNA samples taken from 388 German centenarians with those from 731 younger people. The results of the study appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("PNAS").

Previously, in September 2008, an American research team led by Bradley J. Willcox had published in PNAS a study that indicated a higher frequency of this genetic variation in long-lived Americans of Japanese origin (ages 95 and above). . . .

"The most difficult problem is to get enough old people, especially those aged 100 or more, to take part in such a study. Interestingly, the genetic effects are much more evident in 100-year-olds than in 95-year-olds", notes the first author of the report, Dr. Friederike Flachsbart of the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University.