Robert Wadlow: Height, Shoe Size & Death of the World’s Tallest Man Ever
Rob was born in Alton, Illinois on the 22nd day of February 1918 to Harold Franklin and Addie May Wadlow as Robert Pershing Wadlow. He is the oldest of his parent’s five children. Wadlow’s siblings are Eugene, Helen, Betty Jean, and Harold Jr. his youngest and last surviving sibling Harold Jr. died in 2000.
“Alton Giant” as he would later be addressed as weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces at birth, which was normal for a baby boy but in no time, his parents began to notice his unusual growth.
By six months he weighed 30 pounds (14 kg), that is double the weight of an average six months baby boy. By the time he began to walk, he was weighing 40 pounds (18 kg), and by age eight, he was taller than his father. He was taller than all of his classmates that his elementary school had to make him a special desk. At age five, he was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 105 pounds (48 kg) and wore clothes meant for an older teenage boy.
Bothered by his unusual growth, his parents sought medical help at Barnes Hospital a few weeks before to his twelveth birthday and it was at this point they learnt his growth wasn’t actually normal but was caused by a medical condition which caused an increase in his pituitary gland, thus, resulting in an abnormally high level of the growth hormone
By the time Robert Wadlow was leaving high school (Alton High School) in 1936, he was 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m). Growing up, Rob wanted to be an aviator but after high school, he enrolled at Shurtleff College with the intention of studying law but he never saw his dreams come through.
In 1936, Wadlow began a celebrity following his tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus. In 1938, he joined the International Shoe Company for a promotional tour, and in return, the company took care of his shoes free of charge.
