As of April, the world’s oldest living man is believed to be Englishman John Alfred Tinniswood at 111 years old, according to Guinness World Records. (Guinness lists María Branyas Morera, a California native living in Spain, as the world’s oldest woman, at 117.)
When Mr. Markoff heard the news of his rise to the top of the list, “he just smiled and said, ‘Well, someone has to be there,'” his daughter said in an interview.
He stood out not only for his longevity but also for a lucidity unusual for his age. Until her final months, she pored over the Los Angeles Times every morning, discussed the war in Ukraine and other world events and posted dispatches about his life on his blog.
“He believed that if he stayed active, he would live, and he really wanted to live,” Ms. Hansen said.
Mr. Markoff has moved beyond the level of what researchers call a super-ager: a person over 80 whose brain appears decades younger. And that made his brain very valuable for research, said Tish Hevel, CEO of the Brain Donor Project, a Naples, Fla.-based nonprofit affiliated with the National Institutes of Health.
