Dr. James Hiram Bedford was a man of many accomplishments—an esteemed professor at the University of California, a World War I veteran, and a well-traveled individual with a full and meaningful life. However, he is perhaps best remembered as the first person whose body was preserved through cryonics, the practice of freezing a human body (or brain) at extremely low temperatures after death,

n 1967, Bedford, who had built a comfortable life for himself, was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs. At that time, medical advancements were not as developed as they are today, and his prognosis was grim.During his battle with the disease, Bedford became familiar with the concept of cryonic preservation through the book The Prospect of Immortality by Dr. Robert Ettinger, the founder of the Cryonics Institute. Ettinger, widely regarded as the father of body freezing experiments, envisioned a future where individuals could be preserved after death with the hope of being revived when medical technology had progressed enough to cure their illnesses.