Alexander Imich has lived through much of what most people today have only learned about in their history class and read in books. He was born the same year that the Wright brothers made their first flight as well as lived through the time that Albert Einstein formulated his now famed E=mc2 equation, the Titanic sunk and the Penicillin was invented.
In April this year, Imich, who was born in Poland on February 4, 1903, was declared as the oldest man in the world validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), which tracks supercentenarians, or people who are at least 110 years old, all over the world.
The title oldest man alive, however, now goes to Sakari Momoi from Japan after Imich died on Sunday at 9:03 am. His grandniece Karen Bogen and a friend Michael Mannion said that the old man, who has survived World War I and World War II as well as managed to live in the era of YouTube and Facebook, died peacefully at the Esplanade Manhattan, a senior residence at 305 West End Ave. at 74th St. where he had been staying since 1986.
Imich attributed his long life to having good genes saying that his father managed to live to his 90's. He also said that not drinking alcohol, his clean diet of chicken and fish as well as being physically active when he was younger may have helped him attain old age. He likewise thinks it is because he and his wife Wela, a painter who died in 1986, did not have any children albeit Imich wasn't really sure what kept him alive for so long.
"I don't know, I simply didn't die earlier," he said in an interview when asked about his secret to longevity. "I have no idea how this happened."
Imich was born into a Jewish family in Czestochowa, Poland but fled the country with his wife with the invasion of the Nazis in 1939. They later immigrated to Waterbury, Connecticut in 1951. Imich was also a psychic researcher. At age 92, he edited the anthology "Incredible Tales of the Paranormal."
Imich was 111 years old at the time of his death. His body will be turned over to the Mount Sinai Medical Center for research.
