Administration
Director – Mr. Robert D. Young
Atlanta, Georgia, United States; Director, GRG Supercentenarian Research and Database Division (This involves managing the other admins, attend conferences representing the GRG, preparing scientific tables and publications, managing all applications, putting them in order, filing the data, and moving cases forward). In addition, he is the GRG Senior Claims Investigator; Moderator for the World’s Oldest People Group [See Ref. 1 below for the WOP Charter]; the GRG representative to the International Database on Longevity (IDL); and Senior Gerontology Consultant for the Guinness Book of World Records; E-mail: ryoung@grg.org; Voice: (404) 807-0029.
Robert Douglas Young is a gerontology consultant and researcher best known for validating supercentenarian cases and debunking longevity claims. He is the current GRG Correspondent for the United States (since 1999), the current Senior Consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records (since 2005) and the Co-Director for the Gerontology Research Group (since 2015). Young has worked on several books, including Guinness World Records editions 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005 and 1997, World Almanac 2004, The Wisdom of the World’s Oldest People (2005), by Jerry Friedman (whose photographic exhibits of supercentenarians were presented at the United Nations in July 2006), and Living in Three Centuries (2006), by Mark Story. Young graduated summa cum laude from Georgia State University in 2006, with a Bachelor of History degree and an Undergraduate Certificate in Gerontology. In August 2008, Young obtained a Master of Arts in Gerontology degree from Georgia State University. Young obtained a second Masters in History at GSU in 2011, with a concentration in World History endorsement. Young’s interdisciplinary approach, combining gerontology and history, led to such works as the history of extreme longevity tracking, the history of longevity mythology, and the like. Robert has, since 1999, maintained lists of the world’s oldest people for the Gerontology Research Group (becoming the main person in charge of the data since May 2002), and has also worked with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, the New England Centenarian Study and the Social Security Administration to establish global databases on the world’s oldest people. Jean-Marie Robine of France, validator of the Jeanne Calment case, worked with INSERM to establish the International Database on Longevity in 2005. Young is now a listed contributor as of 2010.
Senior Administrator – Mr. Mark Muir
Phoenix, Arizona, United States; Senior Administrator for GRG Website Support (This involves preparing and delivering data sets for analysis, maintaining GRG Tables on website and evaluating data in the database); E-mail: mmuir@grg.org.
Administrator – Mr. Waclaw Jan Kroczek
Tarnowskie Góry, Silesia Voivodeship, Poland; GRG Administrator for Case Validation Reports (This involves producing case validation reports for Mr. Robert Young’s review); also GRG Correspondent for Poland & Nordic Countries E-mail: wjk.grg@gmail.com; Voice: (0048) 600109523
GRG Correspondent for Poland and Nordic Countries (since 2013), GRG Admin Assistant (2015-2018), GRG Administrator for Case Validation (since 2018). Participant of many domestic and foreign scientific conferences. In 2016, he won the first prize in a public health session held at Gdańsk 24th International Student Scientific Conference, for his work “The emergence of supercentenarians in Poland and the study of human longevity”. He participated in conferences organized by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Copenhagen, Denmark (2015) Tallinn, Estonia (2016) Rostock, Germany, (2017) and Paris, France (2019). He proved the existence of the population of supercentenarians (people over 110 years of age) in modern Poland. By 2023, he described 30 such cases. He visited and interviewed twelve of them, including Aleksandra Dranka of Harklowa (1903-2014), Jadwiga Szubartowicz of Lublin (1905-2017) and Tekla Juniewicz of Gliwice (1906-2022), Czeslawa Lasiewicz of Monki [Pol. Mońki] (1907-2018), Irena Smialowska of Legionowo (1908-2019), Antonina Partyka of Bojadla [Pol. Bojadła] (1908-2020), Stanislaw Kowalski of Swidnica [Pol. Świdnica] (1910-2022), Emilia Borchert of Warsaw (1910-2020), Wanda Szajowska of Kraków (1911-2022) Agnieszka Strzalka of Kolonia Sol [Pol. Kolonia Sól] (1912-2022), Jadwiga Żak-Stewart of Łódź (1912-present), and Irena Sila-Nowicka of Warsaw (1913-present). In cooperation with the closest family and through the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lwów, he reached the original birth record of Tekla Juniewicz, proving her status as the oldest Polish woman in modern history and the first who crossed the barrier of 112 and 113 years in Polish history. In 2014-2015, he participated in an international scientific team’s travels to Verbania, Piedmont, Italy, where they met and interviewed several times the oldest living European at the time and the last surviving person in the world born before 1900, Emma Morano (1899-2017). In 2017, he travelled to Sprockhoevel, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he twice met and interviewed Mathilde Mange (1906-2019), who later became the first German woman who reached the age of 113. He lectured at the University of the Third Age. He is a regular columnist for Gazeta Senior, a nationwide magazine devoted to the social issues of the elderly. In 2018 he took part in a competition organized by the MEP Jerzy Buzek “(Un)ordinary women – unusual stories. Silesian women on the 100th anniversary of independence”, in which he brought closer the figure of Stefania Zacharska (1906-2016), a well-deserved teacher from Tarnowskie Góry, who lived to 109 years and was also one of the oldest Polish women. Based on his experience, he hypothesized that the secret to longevity, which supercentenarians state independently of each other, is, among others, the resistance to stress, optimism, strong family ties and Scandinavian moderation, the golden mean.
Wacław Jan Kroczek also cooperated with Guinness World Records to validate of two candidates for the title of World’s Oldest Man from Poland: Alexander Imich of New York, USA (1903-2014) and Israel Kristal of Haifa, Israel (1903-2017). Due to the discovery of sufficiently strong evidence from the archives that meet modern age validation standards, compiled in the monograph “Supercentenarians” by the Belgian demographer Dr. Michel Poulain, the Guinness World Records officially recognized both (Alexander Imich in 2014, Israel Kristal in 2016) as the oldest living men in the world in their time. He appeared many times in various domestic and foreign media in connection with important events and reports from the niche of longevity.
On Dec. 10, 2020, there was published the new monograph by Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research entitled “Exceptional Lifespans”, for which Kroczek authored and/or co-authored three chapters: Centenarians, Semi-supercentenarians and the Emergence of Supercentenarians in Poland, Validation of 113-Year Old Israel Kristal as the World’s Oldest Man, Age 115+ in the USA: An Update.
On Apr. 14, 2021, he visited Stanislaw Kowalski on his 111th birthday, the first man in Poland who turned 110 years of age, becoming the first male supercentenarian in Poland. On June 10, 2022, he visited Tekla Juniewicz on her 116th birthday – the first validated 116-year old supercentenarian living north to the 50th parallel.
In 2022, Waclaw Jan Kroczek was the leader of the tech team responsible for the developement of the new modern GRG website and technology under the link: www.grg-supercentenarians-org.
On January 23, 2023, Waclaw Jan Kroczek founded the World Supercentenarian Forum, a new community intended to be welcoming and inclusive place for discussions on healthy senility, human longevity and the world’s oldest people, while respecting the scientific integrity, ethics, and principles.
On January 30, 2023, he travelled to Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, where he met and interviewed supercentenarian Jadwiga Żak-Stewart. He would later re-visit her on her 111th birthday.
On February 27, 2023, he met and interviewed Colonel Kazimierz Klimczak, who was then the oldest living man in Poland and the oldest living 1939 September campaign veteran, as well as the oldest living 1944 Warsaw Uprising veteran.
On March 12, 2023, he met and interviewed Irena Sila-Nowicka who is wife of the late Wladyslaw Sila-Nowicki, a notable figure for Poland’s 20th century.
Assistant – Mr. Victor Bjoerk
Uppsala, Uppsala County, Sweden; GRG Administrative Assistant for News (This involves organizing and reporting news of aging and human longevity.); E-mail: Victorbjorken64@gmail.com; Voice: (0046) 0703821439.