Рой Ли Уолфорд: Патолог, долгожитель и искатель удачи.

Professor of pathology

Roy Lee Walford, M. D. (June 29, 1924 – April 27, 2004) was a professor of pathology at University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, a leading advocate of calorie restriction for life extension and health improvement, and a crew member of Biosphere 2.

In 1947, while on vacation during medical school, Walford and Albert Hibbs, a mathematics graduate student, used statistical analysis of biased roulette wheels to "break the bank" in Reno. They tracked the results of the spins, determined which wheels were biased, and then bet heavily on the ones which were unbalanced. The casinos eventually realized that Walford and his friend knew what they were doing and threw them out. A Life magazine photographer captured the pair drinking milk and counting their chips in a photograph published in the December 8, 1947 issue. Their methods were also mentioned in the roulette book The Eudaemonic Pie by Thomas Bass. Different sources have the pair winning anywhere from $6,500 The high end is more likely, as Walford was reputed to have paid for part of his medical school education and a house from his winnings. The pair also bought a yacht and sailed the Caribbean for over a year.

In 1981, Walford began a commercial collaboration with fellow researchers Richard Weindruch and Kathleen Yankee Hall, and her husband William Hall, a wealthy businessman. In her tribute after his death, Kathleen Hall wrote of Walford, "we both threw in a few thousand dollars and started a small business together." Incorporated in California as Gerontix, the company was to sell supplements intended to improve health and increase life span. The first Gerontix product was butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), with lysine and zinc, which was sold in capsules and marketed as a treatment for herpes. Motivated by the success of the bestselling book Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach, by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, the group intended to sell a package of products, called MaxiLife, which would capitalize on the release of Walford's book, Maximum Life Span. It was expected that Walford, a highly publicized researcher, would experience the same success as Pearson and Shaw. Before Walford's book was published and Gerontix started to manufacture its coordinated products, the manufacturer Twin Laboratories (Twinlab) began to sell a multi ingredient supplement called MaxiLIFE, which the owners of Gerontix discovered in November 1982. Despite the potential for trademark conflict, the Gerontix group elected to proceed with plans to use the brand name MaxiLife. Twin Laboratories brought suit against Gerontix for trademark infringement, and the court issued a summary judgement in favor of Twin Laboratories on February 13, 1984. Before the resolution of the lawsuit, the Gerontix MaxiLife products were brought to market and sold poorly, partly because of the lackluster sales of Walford's book. Lack of success in federal court and in health food stores led to the demise of Gerontix. Gerontix subsequently brought suit for legal malpractice against the attorneys whom Gerontix had hired to obtain the trademark right to the name MaxiLife, but on February 17, 1989 a summary judgement against Gerontix was entered by Los Angeles Superior Court judge Loren Miller, Jr. Gerontix eventually appealed the case to the California Supreme Court after losing an appeal in the California Court of Appeals. In Appendix B of Walford's Maximum Life Span he noted, "Additional additives, such as antioxidants and some of the other materials I've listed in Chapters 7 and 8, can be obtained from Gerontix Biological Research Products ," but he did not disclose that he would profit from the sale of Gerontix products. The company's MaxiLife product brochure, which refers to Walford and his research, also makes no mention of his connection to Gerontix. In November of the first year the crew decided to open a cache of emergency food supplies grown outside of the bubble to supplement their meager diets.

At age 79, Roy Walford died of respiratory failure as a complication of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. According to Walford's friend and colleague, Kathleen Hall, his diagnosis of ALS came as a result of her urging him to see a physician when she noticed "the strangeness in Roy's gait." Walford was survived by his three children, Peter, Morgan, and Lisa Walford. Their mother was Martha Sylvia Schwalb, to whom Walford was married for 20 years before divorcing in the 1970s.