An epidemiologist, in 1960 Paffenbarger initiated a study of 52,000 men who had gone to two universities between 1916 and 1950, watching their health as they aged and correlating their health to how much they exercised.
The results, which were published in 1986, were inescapable: those who exercised lived longer than those who didn’t. The conclusion sparked the modern fitness movement, starting with Paffenbarger himself: by 1967 the data coming out of the study were so obvious he took up jogging. In 1968 he ran the Boston Marathon for the first time; he ran it 21 more times, as well as at least 125 other marathons and ultramarathons.
Paffenbarger’s general conclusion is that every hour of vigorous exercise extended life by two to three hours, making the time spent worth it. “He showed that sedentary people are much more at risk,” said Dr. Allan Abbott of the University of Southern California’s school of medicine. “The more they exercise, the better.” Dr. Paffenbarger was awarded the first International Olympic Committee prize for sport science, in 1996.
But he suffered heart problems — most of the men in his family died of heart problems in their 50s. He died from congestive heart failure at his New Mexico home on July 9 — at age 84.