Unexpected.

R.I.P. Vincent Dransfield

Very sad news, but he appears to have lead a very active life up until the time of his passing.

Rest in peace Mr Dransfield.

Such a heartache to hear about his passing.

He had the potential to reach the heights of Breuning, Hale or McMorran – still, we'll remember him as one of the most exceptional supercentenarians ever.

Rest in peace, Vincent Dransfield.

He was the 54 oldest living person in the USA, 2 oldest living person in New Jersey, being the oldest man, does anyone know who his successor is as oldest man in the state?
He is the 120 oldest known man in US history
He stayed for 23 days as the oldest man in the country, it is the shortest time in history, since there is data (from 1951), before Antonio Pierro, who stayed 30 days between 9 Jan 2007 and 8 Feb 2007 was the oldest man in the country. who had the shortest time. He died at 110 years, 90 days, youngest since Oscar Dubois who died on June 25, 1989 at 109 years, 291 days. He was the second from New Jersey to be considered the oldest man in the country, the first was William Lamb who died on 22 Apr 1969.

RIP

Quite surprising and sad news to hear

RIP to one of the strongest, most independent SCs to ever live

Yes, very sad. Rest in peace, Mr. Vincent Dransfield. Farewell !

Posted by: @024tomi

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Such a heartache to hear about his passing.

He had the potential to reach the heights of Breuning, Hale or McMorran – still, we'll remember him as one of the most exceptional supercentenarians ever.

Rest in peace, Vincent Dransfield.

May he RIP. 🙁

Yes, I also believed that he had such potential, but one thing that concerned me a bit was him having a swallowing problem shortly after his 110th birthday:

https://www.today.com/health/men-s-health/110-year-old-man-drives-car-rcna148538

"When Dransfield required an endoscopy recently for a swallowing problem, the medical staff was stunned he’d only had anesthesia once before in his entire life, Lista says. She noticed the anesthesiologist’s hands were shaking when he administered the medicine into a 110-year-old man."

In turn, this made me wonder whether his body was already giving out on him. Not because there was necessarily anything wrong with his body per se, but simply because his body was already reaching the limits of its lifespan.

It's great that he was able to become the last surviving validated US man born before the start of WWI, as well as the US's oldest living man for a couple of weeks.

Posted by: @chrisr

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Very sad news, but he appears to have lead a very active life up until the time of his passing.

Rest in peace Mr Dransfield.

He had a swallowing problem shortly after his 110th birthday, one that required an endoscopy, but otherwise Yes, there was nothing else wrong with him. I wonder just how severe his swallowing problem was.

I think that Vincent's case shows just how difficult it is for US-born white men nowadays to live past age 110-111 even if they are in superb shape. Walter Breuning truly was a huge exception to the general rule. We might honestly need to wait for decades for Breuning's all-time record for US-born men to be surpassed. Seriously.

Posted by: @futurist

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I think that Vincent's case shows just how difficult it is for US-born white men nowadays to live past age 110-111 even if they are in superb shape. Walter Breuning truly was a huge exception to the general rule. We might honestly need to wait for decades for Breuning's all-time record for US-born men to be surpassed. Seriously.

What's interesting is that with Vincent's death, if it wasn't for Eugene Baltes still being alive, the US's OLM could have been just 108 for a week or two!

To be fair, there have been a few USA “white” (for want of a better word) men going beyond the 110-111 range since Walter’s death in 2011.

i agree though, that there is a reasonably strong possibility his USA record will stand for quite some time.

Posted by: @chrisr

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To be fair, there have been a few USA “white” (for want of a better word) men going beyond the 110-111 range since Walter’s death in 2011.

i agree though, that there is a reasonably strong possibility his USA record will stand for quite some time.

I said US-born white men, so immigrants like Salustiano Sanchez are excluded. The only white US-born man after Walter Breuning who lived past age 111 that I can think of was George Feldman, and he did so only by a single day, dying on his 112th birthday, so he doesn't really argue against my overall point here. Am I forgetting someone?

Posted by: @futurist

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Posted by: @chrisr

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To be fair, there have been a few USA “white” (for want of a better word) men going beyond the 110-111 range since Walter’s death in 2011.

i agree though, that there is a reasonably strong possibility his USA record will stand for quite some time.

I said US-born white men, so immigrants like Salustiano Sanchez are excluded. The only white US-born man after Walter Breuning who lived past age 111 that I can think of was George Feldman, and he did so only by a single day, dying on his 112th birthday, so he doesn't really argue against my overall point here. Am I forgetting someone? 

And Francis Zouein's age is disputed and unverified. We don't know if he was actually the age claimed.

Can you not simply put these points (and others elsewhere on the forum) into just one post Futurist?

My country (and others) also find it somewhat offensive to refer to people as “white” or “black”, each being considered a racist term in many situations. 

Now I genuinely know that this varies to some extent around the world, but without creating yet another post Futurist; when you do make posts in the future, can I ask you to table more delicate or appropriate words, such as African American. European, Caucasian or similar.

The purely common sense point against using black and white, is where do you draw the line for individuals. 

I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK, the terms white and black aren't seen as offensive or racist at all, just descriptive and are commonly used on official forms and in the census. These terms aren't pejorative and don't place any value on people, simply noting physical differences.

I'd definitely avoid the terms "Caucasian" as it's an obsolete racial classification , originating from the discredited biological race theory and doesn't even actually refer to skin colour at all, being based on cranial morphology. The terms European and African-American are more usable, but European (even if specify "ethically European", as otherwise you may inadvertently be suggesting that people with ethical origins outside Europe can't be "proper" Europeans) can cause confusion as Europe is a large continent with many people who at least historically haven't been regarded as "white", thus its difficult to cause (ethically) European and white synonymousely. African-American is of course relevant in this case, as the men being discussed are Americans, but can't be used to discuss people of African decent outside of America. There also may be confusion if we were ever to discuss an ethically European person whose family emigrated from Africa (such as South Africa most likely), as the term African-American would be suitable for them in regards to their place of origin, but not their ethnicity. 

The terms black and white, as you point out, are very general terms which don't properly take into account the nuances of race and ethnicity across the world (there have been and are many countries where these terms are simply meaningless, such as Ancient Egyptian and many places across Asia, Africa and parts of Europe) however I certainly wouldn't see them as offensive and they're not necessarily inferior to other terms. Ideally, we should be calling people what they call themselves, wherever possible, but of course we don't necessarily know what they call themselve, but I don't think that other terms which are just as, if not more so generalised, vague and outdated (such as Caucasian) are necessarily better.

Fair points Simon - and all are certainly noted.

One more from me, for the purpose of interest only .. as we're getting off topic.

Samantha Kerr is Australia's best known female football player. She is currently before the UK courts for calling a UK police officer 'a stupid white bastard'. Interestingly the charge is 'racially aggravated harassment' - so presumably the other two offensive words weren't the key driver of the allegations.

Perhaps the combination was offensive in its entirety - but it's the racist term they are targeting.

I hadn't heard about that case specifically, but I suppose that's a case of race being used to insult and demean someone, not just to describe their appearance. Unfortunately, some people will couple the race of the person with another insult, so even though the terms "white" or "black" aren't commonly seen as offensive here (at least in my experience), they can absolutely be used in a racist manner, in much the same way as some terms could be used in a sexist manner when coupled with other insults despite not being inherently sexist themselves. Whilst what is curious is how in the UK (and across the world), people of European decent are referred to as white, people of African decent are referred to as black, but people of Asian decent are far more likely to be referred to as by their country (or perceived country) of ancestral orgin, rather than the colour of their skin.