Cryonics Institute - History

History

The Cryonics Institute was incorporated in the state of Michigan on 4 April 1976 by four local residents: Richard C. Davis, Robert Ettinger, Mae A. Junod and Walter E. Runkel. Ettinger is widely known as "the father of cryonics" because his book The Prospect of Immortality is believed to have launched the cryonics movement. CI's first client was Ettinger's mother in 1977, and until the beginning of the 1990s, only one more client came along. This was Ettinger's first wife in 1987.

In March 1978, the Cryonics Institute purchased a building near Detroit. It served as its location until 1994, when the organization moved to the new Erfurt Runkel Building. It is named after John C Erfurt and Walter E. Runkel (which are now both in suspension there), and has a sprinkler system for additional security.

Ettinger was CI President for over 25 years until September 2003, when Ben Best became President/CEO and Ettinger became Vice-President. Ettinger retired as Vice-President on his 87th birthday in December 2005, but remained a Director until new Directors were elected in September 2006. For most of the 1990s, Best was President of the Cryonics Society of Canada (CSC) and was Editor of Canadian Cryonics News until the last issue was published in Spring of 2000. He is still a Director of CSC.

In 2003, an article was published in Sports Illustrated magazine centering around the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation; the article contained accusations from a fired Alcor employee alleging Alcor had mishandled the cryopreservation of baseball star Ted Williams. Despite the fact that the Cryonics Institute was not involved in the case, the media hype spurred the state of Michigan to place CI under a "Cease and Desist" order for six months.

Subsequently, the Michigan government decided to license and regulate the Cryonics Institute as a cemetery. This is the reason why, between 2004 and 2012, the perfusion of the bodies could not be performed in the Cryonics Institute building. In accordance to law, it had to be done at the facilities of a funeral director. In 2012, in the spirit of deregulation, the new Michigan Republican government (thanks to the efforts of lawyer David Ettinger) reversed the Cryonics Institute's classification as a cemetery, removing CI from cemetery regulation. Government officials acknowledged that cemetery had been an inappropriate classification. (CI Members regard the Cryonics Institute as more of a hospital than a cemetery, although no conventional classification is really appropriate for a new technology like cryonics).