I know that I’m beginning to sound like an old man, but the subject of one of my earliest childhood memories passed away this morning.  Jack LaLanne, the pioneering fitness guru who extolled and exemplified the benefits of a daily exercise routine and healthy eating, passed away this morning at the age of 96.

A lot of you out there know him from his infomercials that he and his wife of 51 years, Elaine, did to promote his Power Juicer.  For us **ahem** older Americans, he was the guy we watched work out for 30 minutes every morning in glorious black and white with his two beautiful white German Shepherds, Happy and Walter.

When his show would come on, he would tell all us kids to go wake up Mom and tell her to get into the living room and come exercise with him.  You need to remember, there was no cable back then.  All you could watch were the local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and **shudder** PBS.

Jack was an innovator.  He performed 30 minutes of body-shaping exercises using only a towel, a chair, and a couple of small barbells.  And if you dared to try to keep up with him, you would be falling out afterwards.

Jack’s parents were poor French immigrants. Born in 1914, he grew up to become a sugar addict.

His life changed on the night when he attended a lecture by pioneering nutritionist Paul Bragg, an advocate of the benefits of brown rice, whole wheat and a vegetarian diet.

According to Jack:

He got me so enthused. After the lecture I went to his dressing room and spent an hour and a half with him. He said, ‘Jack, you’re a walking garbage can.”‘

Inspired by Bragg, Jack built a makeshift gym in his back yard:

I had all these firemen and police working out there and I kind of used them as guinea pigs.

In 1936 in his hometown of Oakland, CA, Jack did something considered revolutionary at that time. He opened a health studio that included weight-training for women and athletes. The common thought of the day said that weight training made an athlete slow and “muscle bound” and it made a woman look masculine.

You have to understand that it was absolutely forbidden in those days for athletes to use weights. It just wasn’t done. We had athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out.

It was the same with women. Back then, women weren’t supposed to use weights. I guess I was a pioneer.

Jack also founded a chain of fitness studios that bore his name.

His feats of fitness became the stuff of legend. Turning 43 in 1957, he performed more than 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes on the “You Asked For It” television show. When he turned 60, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.  Just swimming that distance wasn’t challenging enough, so he did it while handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. When he turned 70, he performed the same feat in Long Beach harbor!

87-year-old Bob Barker, another television icon, said:

He was amazing. He never lost enthusiasm for life and physical fitness. I saw him in about 2007 and he still looked remarkably good. He still looked like the same enthusiastic guy that he always was.

Barker credits LaLanne for encouraging him to exercise regularly. As he demonstrated in the Adam Sandler movie, Happy Gilmore, Barker holds a Black Belt in karate.

Jack LaLanne’s personal daily exercise routine usually consisted of two hours of weightlifting and an hour in the swimming pool.

It’s a lifestyle, it’s something you do the rest of your life. How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep eating? You just do it.

Jack said in an interview in 1990:

I never think of my age, never. I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I’m just me. Look at Bob Hope, George Burns. They’re more productive than they’ve ever been in their whole lives right now.

He underwent heart valve surgery two years ago, but never stopped exercising, up until his death.

In addition to his wife, he leaves behind two sons, Dan and Jon, and a daughter, Yvonne.

Jack joked in 2006, that

I can’t afford to die. It would wreck my image.

No, sir. It did not. To me, and millions of other Americans, we will always remember your optimism, that great big smile that you always had on your face, and the unrelenting passion that you kept for your life’s mission.

Rest in peace, sir. As you always sang when your show ended: May the Good Lord bless and keep you, too.