JTA — Morrie Markoff, who was born to Jewish parents in an East Harlem tenement in 1914 and lived to become what was believed to be the oldest man in the United States, died June 3 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 110. Markoff’s remarkable lifespan was matched by his remarkable lucidity: After he turned 100, Markoff became an avid blogger and author and saw his scrap metal sculpture exhibited at a Los Angeles gallery.
His memoir, “Keep Breathing: Recollections from a 103-year-old,” was published in 2017. The Brain Donor Project , a nonprofit organization that supports the National Institutes of Health NeuroBioBank, said that, once donated, Markoff’s is likely to be the oldest brain registered and collected without pathological cognitive decline. “He published a book and blog, but now he’s going into the annals of scientific research,” his daughter, Judith Hansen, 81, said in a statement shared by The Brain Donor Project.
“ This is just right up his alley. He loved science. He, with his eighth-grade education, used to read Scientific American — and discuss it with friends.
He did love science.” Markoff was born in New York City on January 11, 1914, one of four children of Max and Rose Markoff, Jewish immigrants from Russia. He survived the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which claimed the life of a brother.
He attended school through the eighth grade before training as a machinist. “I am Jewish and my parents were religious (but not fanatically so),” he .
