Robert Binkowski

Robert George Binkowski (October 28, 1916 – legal death May 8, 1988) is the first whole-body patient cryopreserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, and the sixth person cryopreserved by Alcor overall. Before cryopreserving him, Alcor had received three whole-body patients that were originally cryopreserved by other organizations. Thus, Binkowski became the fourth whole-body patient of Alcor. He was 71 years old at the time of his legal death from cardiac arrest.

Binkowski was a founding member of the Cryonics Society of South Florida (CSSF) in 1971. He became involved in cryonics as a consequence of reading Robert Ettinger's The Prospect of Immortality in 1964 and then writing to Ettinger for information. Ettinger subsequently forwarded Binkowski's name and address to Gregory Strom, the man who initially organized CSSF. In 1972 Binkowski completed suspension arrangements with CSSF. CSSF merged with Alcor on November 18, 1984 and Binkowski executed Alcor paperwork on February 1, 1986.

Binkowski's cryopreservation resulted in a legal tangle with the California Department of Health Services that took two and a half years to resolve.