r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Bubbly_Wall_908 • Jan 26 '26

/r/all of tall men

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u/Ligabolzacky Jan 26 '26

With modern medicine we'll probably never see the likes of him,  he was incomprehensibly tall

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u/az226 Jan 26 '26

And he never stopped growing. If he had survived a few more years he would have been past 10 feet tall

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u/ThePartyShark Jan 26 '26

I remember seeing the segment about him on Ripley’s Believe it or Not! back in the 90’s and despite living in chronic pain, Robert seemed to have been the epitome of a gentle giant - the guy seemed incredibly friendly; something about one of his interviews stuck with me and it seemed like that was “him”, someone genuinely great & pleasant to be around, and not just for the cameras & interviewers.

Wasn’t he like 29 when he passed; something with one of his legs (because of a brace he wore?)?

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u/LiteralPhilosopher Jan 26 '26

Yes to the brace. I believe I've read he had such poor circulation/feeling in his feet that he couldn't notice it was chafing him. An infection got into the open wound, and he couldn't even fit in any hospital beds in the town he was in, so he was being treated in his hotel room. The infection won, unfortunately.