{"id":26347,"date":"2025-04-21T17:11:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26347"},"modified":"2025-04-21T21:24:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:24:59","slug":"willy-ley-was-a-prophet-of-space-travel-his-ashes-were-found-in-a-basement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26347","title":{"rendered":"Willy Ley Was a Prophet of Space Travel. His Ashes Were Found in a Basement."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

The basement of the prewar co-op on the Upper West Side was so cluttered and dark in one area that the staff called it \u201cthe Dungeon,\u201d and last year, the building\u2019s new superintendent resolved to clear it out.<\/p>\n

For weeks, he hauled the junk left behind by former tenants \u2014 old air-conditioners, cans of paint, ancient elevator parts and rolled-up carpets \u2014 through the winding hallway with its low ceilings to the dumpster out back.<\/p>\n

About halfway through the job, he spied an old tin can on a shelf next to a leaf blower. He read the label:<\/p>\n

\u201cRemains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was not the sort of thing you toss in a dumpster.<\/p>\n

The super brought his discovery to the co-op board president, Dawn Nadeau. She had plenty of co-op business to attend to \u2014 a lobby renovation, a roof replacement \u2014 but the disposition of someone\u2019s ashes was new to her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cWe needed to handle the remains as respectfully as possible,\u201d said Ms. Nadeau, a brand consultant. \u201cSo I set out trying to figure who this was and who it belonged to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>
The can of ashes containing Mr. Ley\u2019s remains had been left in a corner of the cluttered basement.<\/span>Maureen Cavanagh for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The basement of the prewar co-op on the Upper West Side was so cluttered and dark in one area that the staff called it \u201cthe Dungeon,\u201d and last year, the building\u2019s new superintendent resolved to clear it out.For weeks, he hauled the junk left behind by former tenants \u2014 old air-conditioners, cans of paint, ancient elevator parts and rolled-up carpets \u2014 through the winding hallway with its low ceilings to the dumpster out back.About halfway through the job, he spied an old tin can on a shelf next to a leaf blower. He read the label:\u201cRemains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.\u201dThis was not the sort of thing you toss in a dumpster.The super brought his discovery to the co-op board president, Dawn Nadeau. She had plenty of co-op business to attend to \u2014 a lobby renovation, a roof replacement \u2014 but the disposition of someone\u2019s ashes was new to her.\u201cWe needed to handle the remains as respectfully as possible,\u201d said Ms. Nadeau, a brand consultant. \u201cSo I set out trying to figure who this was and who it belonged to.\u201dThe can of ashes containing Mr. Ley\u2019s remains had been left in a corner of the cluttered basement.Maureen Cavanagh for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26349,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26350,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347\/revisions\/26350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}