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Related: About this forumTHE HISTORIAN MAKING SCIENCE COME ALIVE
THE HISTORIAN MAKING SCIENCE COME ALIVE
Shortly before he died, Christopher Gray promised his boarding school his skeleton to put on display.
By Lizzie Widdicombe
We all want to leave something behind when we go. The architectural historian Christopher Gray, who died this month, at the age of sixty-six, left a richer legacy than most. There is the Office of Metropolitan History, the business he founded, which is dedicated to digging up blueprints for old New York City buildings. And theres the nearly thirty years worth of Streetscape columns he wrote for the Times, which chronicled the citys unheralded architectural treasures.
But Gray had one more bequest. Just before he died, suddenly, from complications from pneumonia, his lawyer alerted his family to an e-mail hed sent to his alma mater, St. Pauls School, in Concord, New Hampshire: It is my wish, when I die, that my skeleton be flensed (dont ask!) and articulated and given to a worthy institution not entirely embarrassed by its connection with me, for display in the science lab. To sweeten the deal, Gray made a financial pledge to the school, effective only if you accept and take delivery of my skeleton . . . and agree to leave it on display for . . . 10 years? Or until it gets stolen by the Sixth Formthe senior classwhichever comes first. The school had agreed.
The request took Grays wife, Erin, by surprise. This was a relatively new thought of his, she said. Nevertheless, the family wanted to honor his wish. Which left them with an awkward question, in their grief: How do you turn a loved one into a skeleton?
Grays son Peter took the lead. (Were nature people. Were science people, he said of his family. We rejected the cultural associations of skeletons and bones with death as petty.) He called the outfit his father had suggested: Skulls Unlimited International, Inc., in Oklahoma City, which provides skull-cleaning services, mostly to hunters. Skulls Unlimited turned him down. An employee there, Terrisha Harris, explained, We actually do clean human remains, but only for medical institutions. Otherwise, youd have people putting Nana on the couch in the living room. Peter Gray got a similar response from various body farms, outdoor research facilities where forensic anthropologists study decomposition. Sam Houston State University, in Texas, accepts bodies for donation, but will not return the bones. The forensic-anthropology center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has a similar policy, although it will occasionally skeletonize remains for institutions with which it has a relationship, like the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History.
***
Hunt and Peter Gray came up with a plan. The family will donate Christophers remains to the Smithsonian, which will loan them to St. Pauls on a long-term basis. First, though, the body will decompose at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Lee Jantz, at the schools forensic-anthropology center, confirmed, Mr. Gray arrived last week, in the cargo hold of a Delta flight. It takes about eighteen months to get a good clean skeleton, she said. In that time, his remains will be used to train students in forensics. The bones will then be scrubbed with toothbrushes, by grad students, and transferred to the Smithsonian, where they will be rearticulated by Paul Rhymer, a taxidermist for the museum. (Grays estate will pay Rhymers fee of around five thousand dollars.) When thats finished, Peter will pick up his fathers skeleton and take it on a road trip, up to St. Pauls.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/the-historian-making-science-come-alive
Shortly before he died, Christopher Gray promised his boarding school his skeleton to put on display.
By Lizzie Widdicombe
We all want to leave something behind when we go. The architectural historian Christopher Gray, who died this month, at the age of sixty-six, left a richer legacy than most. There is the Office of Metropolitan History, the business he founded, which is dedicated to digging up blueprints for old New York City buildings. And theres the nearly thirty years worth of Streetscape columns he wrote for the Times, which chronicled the citys unheralded architectural treasures.
But Gray had one more bequest. Just before he died, suddenly, from complications from pneumonia, his lawyer alerted his family to an e-mail hed sent to his alma mater, St. Pauls School, in Concord, New Hampshire: It is my wish, when I die, that my skeleton be flensed (dont ask!) and articulated and given to a worthy institution not entirely embarrassed by its connection with me, for display in the science lab. To sweeten the deal, Gray made a financial pledge to the school, effective only if you accept and take delivery of my skeleton . . . and agree to leave it on display for . . . 10 years? Or until it gets stolen by the Sixth Formthe senior classwhichever comes first. The school had agreed.
The request took Grays wife, Erin, by surprise. This was a relatively new thought of his, she said. Nevertheless, the family wanted to honor his wish. Which left them with an awkward question, in their grief: How do you turn a loved one into a skeleton?
Grays son Peter took the lead. (Were nature people. Were science people, he said of his family. We rejected the cultural associations of skeletons and bones with death as petty.) He called the outfit his father had suggested: Skulls Unlimited International, Inc., in Oklahoma City, which provides skull-cleaning services, mostly to hunters. Skulls Unlimited turned him down. An employee there, Terrisha Harris, explained, We actually do clean human remains, but only for medical institutions. Otherwise, youd have people putting Nana on the couch in the living room. Peter Gray got a similar response from various body farms, outdoor research facilities where forensic anthropologists study decomposition. Sam Houston State University, in Texas, accepts bodies for donation, but will not return the bones. The forensic-anthropology center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has a similar policy, although it will occasionally skeletonize remains for institutions with which it has a relationship, like the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History.
***
Hunt and Peter Gray came up with a plan. The family will donate Christophers remains to the Smithsonian, which will loan them to St. Pauls on a long-term basis. First, though, the body will decompose at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Lee Jantz, at the schools forensic-anthropology center, confirmed, Mr. Gray arrived last week, in the cargo hold of a Delta flight. It takes about eighteen months to get a good clean skeleton, she said. In that time, his remains will be used to train students in forensics. The bones will then be scrubbed with toothbrushes, by grad students, and transferred to the Smithsonian, where they will be rearticulated by Paul Rhymer, a taxidermist for the museum. (Grays estate will pay Rhymers fee of around five thousand dollars.) When thats finished, Peter will pick up his fathers skeleton and take it on a road trip, up to St. Pauls.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/the-historian-making-science-come-alive
What a truly selfless gesture - and kudos to Christopher Gray's family for finding out a way to carry out his last wish.
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THE HISTORIAN MAKING SCIENCE COME ALIVE (Original Post)
beam me up scottie
Apr 2017
OP
And I thought scrubbing the floor with toothbrushes in boot camp sucked.
beam me up scottie
Apr 2017
#4
Warpy
(111,332 posts)1. Body farm followed by a medical school?
Sounds really good to me. They'd have a ball with my bones, studying non deforming rheumatoid arthritis that has nearly destroyed my wrists and part of my spine while not displaying the usual deformations seen with it.
The local med school is a good one but their rheumatology department could use a boost.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)2. It's not like we're going to need our bodies after we're dead.
I would rather become tree fertilizer than get pumped full of toxic chemicals and sealed in a concrete vault.
Kali
(55,019 posts)3. Always picking on the grad students.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)4. And I thought scrubbing the floor with toothbrushes in boot camp sucked.