Sir David Frost, British journalist, interviewer, broadcaster and author froze to death Sunday as a result of having locked himself in a walk-in freezer aboard the cruise ship the QE II. Sources on board the ship said that the door evidently closed behind him and he was unable to open it. He was 74. Mr. Frost was sailing from his home city of Southampton, England bound for Lisbon when he apparently wandered into the kitchen area where the large freezer was located. He had been scheduled to give a series of lectures on global warming to the passengers on the ship. When he failed to appear, crew members and several passengers set out to look for him. They found him in the freezer 'hard as a carp' according to steward Jason Carter. “The irony of this terrible tragedy is, well, ironic”, said the ship's chief physician Dr. Peter Jorgensen. “David Frost dying of frostbite, I mean, what are the odds”? “We all knew David as being a cool customer”, said his friend and agent, Richard Thomas, “but frostbite? Who would have ever guessed? It must have been a horrible way to die.” Mr. Frost was born in Kent in 1939 and attended Oxford University where he graduated with a degree in refrigeration repair with a minor in HVAC technology. He left that field to go into journalism in 1951 when he was randomly selected to be interviewed as a 'man on the street' on a BBC television program. “I was fascinated by that interview”, he said. “I knew that was my calling in life”. Frost went on to interview scores of famous people throughout his career, altho most of topics he covered were related to heating, cooling, air conditioning, refrigeration and thermostat regulation. For example, in his famous interview with Richard Nixon in 1972, he asked the President his views on evaporation condensation rates for a 25,000 BTU roof top unit and whether an air conditioner that size could effectively cool a 10,000 sq. ft. commercial warehouse. When Nixon hesitated, Frost used that gaffe to embarrass and humiliate him. Nixon left the interview early stating that he had some important business to attend to at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. Frost was knighted in 1987 by Queen Elizabeth for fixing her Amana side-by-side refrigerator at four in the morning when a faulty condenser shorted out causing the appliance to stop working. “The Queen really wanted a ham sandwich after a night of drinking and partying. When she went to the fridge and saw that it was inoperative, she called me and I immediately came over to fix it”, he said. “He will be sadly missed by all who knew him”, the Queen said.
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