Steven P. Rievman; Cryonics movement leader `deanimates' (great)
Hyfler/Rosner
Cryonics movement leader `deanimates'
The Plantation psychologist was a funny guy who was serious
about life after death.
Posted on Tue, May. 20, 2008
ebre...@MiamiHerald.com
lots of great photos and links
http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/539558.html
Dr. Steven P. Rievman, a Plantation psychologist, believed
in a better world to come and figured his best shot at being
part of it was putting himself on ice.
So after he ''deanimated'' on May 12 at North Broward
Medical Center -- as cryonics proponents call dying --
technicians pumped anti-clotting drugs into his body,
cold-packed it and shipped it to Arizona.
Rievman, 64, who co-founded the Cryonics Society of South
Florida in the 1960s, now resides in a deep-freeze capsule
at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale,
awaiting the day when medical science can ''re-animate'' him
and cure his ills: lupus and Type I diabetes, which
afflicted him starting at age 17.
He had undergone cardiac surgery twice in nine weeks and
died of a heart attack, friends said. A life insurance
policy is paying the $150,000 perpetual-care tab at Alcor.
Cryonics ''fascinated him from the first time he heard of
the concept,'' said Deborah Rievman, his wife of 30 years.
He was born Jewish, but ``cryonics was his religion.''
Austin Tupler, who owns a Davie-based trucking company, met
Rievman in the 1960s when both were involved in a fledgling
cryonics group.
''Over a period of time we formed the society and
established our own little clinic equipped to freeze a
person,'' in a Davie warehouse, Tupler said. ``We bought a
lot of equipment but we never used it. We didn't have enough
members and they were not dying fast enough.''
The group merged with Alcor in the 1980s. Among its frozen
clients: the head of baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams.
Bill Faloon of Boca Raton, an Alcor member, said that ''like
many of his generation, Steve read The Prospect of
Immortality,'' Robert C.W. Ettinger's 1964 book about
cryonics, sometimes called the ``manifesto of the
immortalist movement.''
Faloon described the cryonics-preparation procedure:
''When the person deanimates, he's put into crushed ice in
plastic bags and medications are injected to stop
post-mortem [physical] changes. CPR is done on the
deanimated [Alcor] member to make sure the medications''
travel throughout the body.
Rievman was ''perplexed'' that Americans didn't embrace the
method, Faloon said.
``If it doesn't work, you have nothing to lose.''
The Brooklyn-born Rievman moved to Miami as a preschooler,
later graduating from Miami Senior High School and the
University of Miami before earning a doctoral degree in
education from Florida Atlantic University in 1973.
A licensed psychologist, Rievman worked as a school guidance
counselor, taught at FAU, conducted a private practice in
behavioral therapy and did dementia research until the
mid-1990s when poor health forced him to retire, his wife
said.
They met when both worked at the old Community Hospital of
South Broward -- he heading a diabetes center, she as a
receptionist.
Alan Duretz of Margate worked with Rievman for 18 years,
managing Wellness Senior Services, which Rievman started
with 'a small group of psychologists . . . servicing people
in nursing homes. He created that entire business: [therapy]
specific to residents of long-term care facilities . . . He
was truly a proponent of relieving the pain and suffering of
folks `incarcerated' in a nursing home.''
In 1991, Rievman was appointed to Florida's Medicare Carrier
Advisory Committee, which disbanded five years later.
''He'd write an article for the Florida Psychological
Association [newsletter] every month on how to deal with
Medicare,'' Duretz said. ``He always took phone calls from
other psychologists having [Medicare] problems, even though
they were potential competitors.''
Serious stuff, but Rievman had ''a wry wit,'' said Duretz.
``You had to be pretty intelligent to get it.''
Last year, Laffing Matterz, a Fort Lauderdale dinner
theater, produced his song Bird Flu as a comedy routine.
Manager Chris Pineau said that actors sang about how fowl
``were getting back at people for eating poultry. . . It was
really funny, especially with the chicken costumes.''
Heart bypass surgery two months ago left Rievman on a
ventilator. Right before, Rievman and Duretz had a final
conversation: 'His last words to me were: `I think I've used
up the last of my nine lives.' He was right. He knew how
sick he was.''
Still, ``he truly believed in the future of cryonic
preservation and believed there will be a time when he will
resume life in some fashion.''
Family and friends plan to hold a celebration of Rievman's
life and request donations in his memory to Alcor Life
Extension Foundation, 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110,
Scottsdale, AZ 85260.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Rievman was ''perplexed'' that Americans didn't embrace the
> method, Faloon said.
As Robert Ettinger (one of the early advocates of this stuff) said,
"Many are cold, but few are frozen."
La N
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:RPidnQ-xKcC6BK7V...@rcn.net...
> > The group merged with Alcor in the 1980s. Among its frozen clients: the
> head of baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams.
>
I had forgotten about that. Anyway, the cryonics movement needs more celebs
to endorse their cause, I would say.
- nilita