With Kevin Spacey’s movie “Beyond the Sea” coming out, Bobby Darin’s life is once again in the news. After Darin’s death at only 37, his body was donated to UCLA for research. But that’s where it ends. So, what eventually happened to his mortal remains? Most schools will cremate cadavers in groups after the med students have had their fun, then a portion of the ashes are given to each family so they have at least some of their dearly departed. But I can find no account of such actions with Bobby Darin. What gives? Is he in a giant jar of phermaldahyde in the back of some closet at UCLA? As crazy as this sounds, we have to remember that Einstein’s brain didn’t fair much better.
Even findagrave doesn’t seem to know!
After your body is donated to science, the university or hospital will contact the family with the remains, sometimes years later. My guess is that Darin’s family quietly disposed of whatever was left without telling the press.
Not neccessarily; It depends on the organization. They can if the family requests it, but I understand that universities prefer not to do this as it adds a lot of tracking paperwork and such. The bodies often get separated into several parts and keeping track of where all of those livers and spleens are can be a headache.