Robert Pershing Wadlow (1918-1940) of Alton, Illinois, was the tallest
person ever recorded in history, with a height, when fully grown, of 8 feet 11
inches. He was a normal baby, but by the age of 6 months he weighed 30 pounds,
and by the time he was eight he was already over six feet tall: at 13, he
became the world's tallest Boy Scout at seven feet four inches. His abnormal
growth was due to a pituitary imbalance which would probably have been
treatable today.
Robert had a close and loving family, all of normal height, who encouraged
him to live as normally as possible, and unlike many other unusually
handicapped people he seems to have had a fairly ordinary life as a
valued and loved member of his local community. By all accounts he was a
friendly and laid-back character, very easy-going: the townsfolk of Alton called
him the Gentle Giant, and documentaries and books about him are full of
affectionate memories from his neighbours. When Robert was twenty, the company
that made his enormous (and very expensive) shoes decided to donate them
for free, and Robert became a travelling ambassador for the company, driving
around with his father in their specially-adapted car, visiting 800 towns and 41
states.
Two years later, after having trouble with his feet for some time, he
contracted a fatal infection from a blister while making an appearance in
Michigan. There were no hospital beds big enough, so the doctors treated him
in the hotel where he was staying, and despite emergency surgery and blood
transfusions, he died in his sleep on 15 July, 1940. He was taken back to his
home town for burial and buried as requested in a cement-lined tomb, to prevent
anyone digging his body up as a medical curiosity. (Despite this, the museum at
Loma Linda University in California has a skeleton which they claim is
his) In 1984 the townspeople of Alton petitioned for some kind of public
recognition of their local hero, and in 1985 a life-size bronze statue was
erected to his memory on the campus of the Southern Illinois University School
of Dental Medicine.