4. Terry McCann, Olympic Gold Medalist (1934-2006)
Terry McCann won three consecutive AAU National Championships, as well as the Gold Medal in the bantamweight division of freestyle wrestling at the Summer Olympics in Rome, in 1960. He had an outstanding career in wrestling, having been first nominated to participate in the Olympics in 1956. However, McCann refused the opportunity, as he was bound to complete his education. Terry McCann was also an accomplished wrestling coach and a surfer. Terry McCann won his gold medal in wrestling at the 1960 Olympics. Despite having been experiencing a series of unusual symptoms, such as chest pain and shortness of breath, the wrestler dismissed the signs and attributed his discomfort to aging. The pleural mesothelioma diagnosis ensued approximately one year later, in 2005. Terry McCann had been extensively exposed to asbestos in the 1950s, while he was working in an oil refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He would return home with a fine white dust covering his hair and clothes, but, he was not aware that the dust was, in fact, deadly asbestos fibers. On June 7, 2006, Terry McCann died in California, at the age of 72.
More than 40 years after that Olympic triumph, after years of coaching, a career in business and a life revolving around his fitness regimen, McCann was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He became an outspoken critic of the asbestos industry and the CEOs of the corporations that produced the toxic products.