Paul Wakfer is the short name of Paul Antonik Wakfer with legal name David Paul Wakfer (born February 26, 1938) - the "David" was never used because, after officially registering his name, his mother decided that she did not want him to be called "Dave". From 1997 until late 2002 Paul also used the pen name of Tom Matthews within the life extension community. As Paul Wakfer, he is a graduate of Engineering Physics (BASc, U of Toronto, 1959), winner of 1959 Canadian Association of Physicists Prize (description and current year results), holds a Master of Arts in Applied Mathematics (MA, U of Toronto, 1960), is a former Assistant Professor of mathematics (U of Toronto, 1964-1970), and is a former computer consultant, teacher and entrepreneur (1973-1990) who has been an avid reader of all things nutritional since adulthood and a member of the Life Extension Foundation (LEF) since 1981 (life member since 1991). Paul was also extremely active in the cryonics community during 1991 to 1998 (with diminishing activity up to early 2001) as a founder of 21st Century Medicine (with Saul Kent and Mike Darwin), a founder of CryoCare Foundation, President and investor in Cryovita Laboratories, Inc. (merged with 21st Century Medicine in 1997), originator of the Prometheus Project (which, though its original concept was forced to be ultimately abandoned, nevertheless directly lead to the major cryopreservation advances which 21st Century Medicine has made), and President of The Institute for Neural Cryobiology from 1997 to 2001 (which also helped 21st Century Medicine acquire some of its present cryobiology knowledge). After becoming less active in cryonics since 1997, Paul (as Tom) acquired, through self-study, in-depth and detailed knowledge of biology, medicine, biochemistry and nutrition. Tom served as the Life Extension Foundation's Internet Health and Nutrition Advisor from 1997, and moderator of the LEF Forums from their inception in May 1997, during their organization into a unique and highly useful form of information communication, until his denial of access on Jan 10, 2002 after his notice of resignation on Jan 3, effective Jan 17.
During Paul's post-graduate studies at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, at New York University (Washington Square) in 1961, he enrolled in an extra curricular course from The American School of Economics. It was while attending these lectures on freedom oriented economics (by such notables as Ludwig von Mises and Henry Hazlitt), that he overheard a conversation about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, then read it and eventually everything associated with her.
Since 1972 Paul has been an independent scholar in the philosophy of freedom reading widely and deeply from the works of the classical liberal thinkers and more contemporary libertarians writers. This has enabled Paul to progress from his original views of childhood that an oligarchy of the wisest should govern, to a full recognition that only the individual can judge what is in her/his own best interest and that an individual's goal of seeking to maximize his lifetime happiness will produce a complete and consistent set of rules of social order which will promote and allow this goal to be sought in a conflict-free manner by all rational individuals. The full derivation and elucidation of this viewpoint may be read in Paul's essay Social Meta-Needs: A New Basis for Optimal Human Interaction. (Some of Paul's earliest writings from the early 1980s will in the future be made available online; his most philosophical works currently available can be read at the Self-Sovereign Individual Project. Additional writings by Paul deriving from or complementing this foundational basis can be seen at the blogs, "Libertarian Critiques" and "Thinking in Essentials". Also see Kitty Reflects on MoreLife entries for 11/03/02 and 07/13/03 for personal perspectives.)
Additional profile information about Paul can be seen at his public LinkedIn.com page (same information as provided to the "LinkedIn" members).
Paul can also now be "followed" on Twitter.
Update 12/12/11 Kitty Antonik Wakfer (born April 6, 1945 and also known as Kitty and Katherine Antonik; formerly with last name Raastad and Antonik-Raastad; with other Internet Forum Usernames "Kitty" and "KittyA" and "KittyAW") formerly practiced as a registered nurse and later as a mechanical engineer; she has been an avid reader of science fact and fiction since her youth. As a nurse for 13 years, Kitty worked in the areas of emergency care, obstetrical, pre- and post-surgical, geriatric, psychiatric, and home-health finding the most satisfaction in the latter which allowed her to utilize her strong patient advocate skills. She returned to university level studies (moving to engineering from nursing) and after graduation from the University of Arizona (BSME 1983) she was employed at the then Motorola Government Electronics Group (sold to General Dynamics after her departure). Kitty spent more than 16 years in the mechanical design of space-borne electronic hardware, most notably the GPS Block IIR and Block IIF Crosslink Data Transponders. In this role she was responsible for the mechanical integrity of the units, specifically their performance after launch and deployment. In conjunction with the various electronic engineers and designers, Kitty's responsibilities included the design of the numerous printed circuit boards, their manufacture by outside vendors, and interfacing with in-house assembly services. In addition she was responsible for various analyses, customer presentations, vendor reviews, mechanical testing, and overseeing a team of project mechanical designers.
Kitty's pro-freedom philosophy had its earliest formal introduction with the reading of Ayn Rand's Anthem at age 16, the same year that Paul was reading The Fountainhead for the first time. Over the years she read all the works of Rand and many of those of Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, Thomas Sowell and other 20th century writers on economic and personal actions. She has more recently enlarged her knowledge of the moral basis of human interactions by reading many of the writings of earlier writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Lysander Spooner, Jeremy Bentham, Herbert Spencer, and others whose writings either served as philosophical foundations for the US founding fathers or who wrote critiques in the years following the federalization of the US government.
Kitty has increased her writings beyond the contents of MoreLife.org. Most of the articles in the Focus on Freedom section of the Self-Sovereign Individual Project are by her and since July 7 2007 she has had many articles published at OpEdNews.com and even more comments, a website that is primarily "progressive" (translated as actually in favor of more government) in the vast majority of articles it publishes, but will accept all well written items. In this way, Kitty ensures that she is not simply "preaching to the choir". (However, Kitty's written contributions to OpEdNews.com have been few since that website refused to publish, "Are Principles Unaffordable?", even though it was written following an email comment by its publisher Rob Kall to Kitty and noted in the article.) Kitty also can be "followed" on Twitter and since late October 2011 has a Facebook account.
She joined Paul as partner in life in August 2000 (they were married in November 2000) and assists him in everything he does, particularly including the design of this website for which she is chief programmer.
Paul (Tom), singly before mid-2000, and with Kitty after that, has been asked by those who see him in person what he does to stay looking and feeling so well. Our regimens - Kitty's and Paul's - detail all our supplements. Since beginning The LEF Forums (now only resembling its former notable self in general format - excellent comments by Tom available in posts predating January 11, 2002, although as of July 2004 LEF removed the easily distinguishable red fonted "[comments --Tom]" leaving only "::" surrounding his comments), Paul (Tom) has told readers repeatedly that the first line of attack against aging is a diet that promotes the body's resources for maintaining health. Our personal use of food for this purpose is available for scrutiny.
