Yeah, crazy stuff. Shows what's possible if you have no boundaries. He collected old glow in the dark paint and extracted the radium from it then used beryllium foil to make a neutron source that he used to irradiate thorium from kerosene lamps, producing U-233. Very tiny amounts, but remarkable nonetheless.

I was unaware that he died. :\ He's sort of a local legedend here in SE Michigan. I wish I'd known about his funeral, the funeral home is a few hundred feet from my house.

Probably important to highlight that he was 39 when he died...

I always admired his passion, but puzzled at his stubborn lack of safety precautions.

If I recall, the cause of death was "unatural" and years of mental health problems hint that he didn't die of radiation related diseases.

Thats what I had recalled, until I found his mugshot when he was arrested stealing smoke detectors - his face was covered in lesions attributed to radiation. Pretty sad. If it wasn't the immediate cause, it likely wasn't unrelated either.

Probably a good lesson for us all: anything can be learned on your own, but learning on your own is not guaranteed to highlight what you don't know and need to.