The world's oldest man, certified as a 111-year-old New Yorker, died Sunday morning, according to friends who had been taking care of him.
Alexander Imich, a retired chemist and parapsychologist, lived on the Upper West Side and had attained the rank of oldest man on the planet this April as determined by the Gerontology Research Group of Torrance, Calif., the Associated Press reported.
His niece, Karen Bogen of Providence, Rhode Island, confirmed that Imich died Sunday at his home in Manhattan.
With his health declining about two weeks ago, Imich had been unable to recognize Bogen a day before his death. Imich died peacefully at 9:03 a.m., according to his friends Michael Mannion and Trish Corbett.
Imich was born in 1903 in a town in Poland that was then part of Russia. He and his wife fled after the Nazis invaded in 1939. They eventually moved to the United States in 1951. His wife died in 1986, the AP reported.
Good genes, a general healthy lifestyle -- chicken, fish, no alcohol -- and participating in gymnastics and swimming in his younger days was the secret to his longevity, Imich claimed in news reports.
Imich shrugged off the title in an interview with NBC 4 New York last month when asked for his secret to longevity.
"I don't know, I simply didn't die earlier," he quipped. "I have no idea how this happened."
Although Imich was the world's oldest man, he wasn't the oldest person -- 66 women outranked him.
The average life expectancy for American women is 81.92 years, according to 2014 government estimates. Men, on the other hand, live an average 77.11 years, ABC News reported.
A 116-year-old Japanese woman, Misao Okawa, is recognized as the world's oldest living person.
The rank of world's oldest man will now go to Sakari Momoi of Japan, also 111 and born just a day after Imich in 1903, according to Gerontology Research.
