Chet Day writes--
>At the moment, I'm quite preoccupied with the death of T.C. Fry. I'm
>putting together a special memorial issue of my newsletter, and if
>any of you have information about his life and/or death that you'd
>like to share, please send it to [log in to unmask] so I can try
>to piece together what's turning into a fascinating puzzle.

Howdy, Chet, and welcome aboard!

I wanted to put in a plug here for the rest of you to PLEASE forward any
 info you have about T.C. Fry's life story and/or death to Chet, especially
 the "inside story" details that have escaped public attention until now.
 And SOON, because Chet is working towards an October 25th deadline to
 complete his story on T.C. for the upcoming issue of Health & Beyond. Chet
 tells me he has not gotten the response from sources among people on his
 subscription list with info about T.C. that he had been hoping for, making
 his job more difficult.

Many people in the natural hygiene/veg-raw community are very disturbed and
 wondering why T.C. died at the early age of 70 of a pulmonary embolism
 (blood clot) given his outspokenness on raw foods, fruitarianism, and
 health. Yet the chances are--like with other prominent leaders in the
 movement such as Herbert Shelton--the underlying causes of his death are
 likely to be quickly forgotten (or even whitewashed) by the movement at
 large without an honest disclosure and communication to interested parties
 what really happened. (It has taken over 10 years for the real factors in
 Shelton's death--Parkinson's disease--to be communicated more widely to the
 natural hygiene movement at large.)

As a fellow small publisher, I know how difficult it can be to try to put
 stories like this together on a short deadline when you aren't a big-cheese
 famous magazine that everybody flocks to automatically. But at this point
 no one else that I know of is planning a story on T.C. except Chet. Likely
 the ANHS (American Natural Hygiene Society) will run an obit mentioning
 nothing other than a few high points of T.C.s life (if that). Thus if no
 one else digs into the story, the matter will likely be dropped and
 gradually forgotten, while another opportunity to learn something about the
 long-term effects of the kinds of effects some of the more radical diets
 have on those who practice and epouse them will have passed us by.

I believe it's very important that we hear the full story so that we can
 make up our minds for ourselves what happened with T.C. during his
 controversial life and death, rather than being spoon-fed a sanitized
 version (or none at all) by the "official" sources of authority in our community.

So please take this opportunity to help get the story out seriously, or you
 may never find out the real truth. Chet is a true professional in the best
 sense of the word, with a yen to get to the bottom of things and give us
 the straight truth, as anyone knows who has subscribed to his newsletter.
 So let's all pitch in and give him a hand--either here or more likely by
 private email if you are concerned about spreading rumors.

I know Chet is the type of guy who will make clear in his article about T.C.
 just what he has been able to confirm or not, so readers can make up their
 own minds about him. So even if something turns out only to be a rumor, it
 may still be important in helping put Chet on the trail of something that
 may turn up important facts. Or if you know somebody who may know something
 or somebody else who might, it would also be valuable simply forwarding
 that person's name and addresses (snail or email) or phone to Chet so he
 can trace the story.

--Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]> Wichita, KS