Armed with sponge lungs, what started as a school project -- learning the dangers of smoking -- led to 14-year-old high school freshman Joel Spitzer taking center-stage inside a tent at an August 1971 Chicago 4H convention to share what he'd learned.

Don Zeigler with the American Cancer Society helped arrange for Joel to begin conducting smoking prevention presentations at Chicago area schools.

By 1976, as an American Cancer Society volunteer, Joel had detailed the dangers of smoking to thousands of students ranging from the 6th grade through medical school.

It was then, following a presentation to third-year medical students, that a professor asked Joel if he'd be interested in being the opening speaker at an upcoming stop smoking clinic on the dangers of smoking. "Sure," said Joel. It was presentation of the same "smoking dangers" he'd given hundreds of times before.

But it was his first presentation to smokers.

"I figured I'd do the same program. I'd show them what smoking was, what it was going to do to them if they didn't quit, and somebody was going to come and teach them how to quit smoking."

As fate would have it, the clinic's smoking cessation facilitator became ill.

"I did this program and the 7 people seemed like they were really paying attention and they were shocked. They had not heard a lot of this stuff before," recalls Joel.

The seven quitters left and Joel packed up his materials and was about to leave when the clinic coordinator told him that there's a problem. The person scheduled to conduct the six-session clinic called saying she was sick and wouldn't be able to make it.

"The seven people we just sent home, they are coming back tomorrow and we don't have anyone to run the program. Will you do the program?" asked the coordinator.

"Here's the dilemma," recalls Joel. "I had just used up everything that I knew about smoking. I knew what smoking caused. I didn't know what caused smoking."

"I didn't know what people had to do to quit smoking. I'd never really talked to people who had quit smoking, it wasn't my area."

Joel twice declined but the coordinator kept insisting.

"Finally, I said, listen. I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't know the first thing about quitting smoking. I've used up everything I know and have nothing more to say."

Almost in tears, the coordinator pleaded with Joel to return. Finally, Joel relented. "Okay, I'll come back tomorrow."

His "dangers" presentation had obviously made an impression as all 7 quitters returned. Four were going cold turkey and three were cutting down. All were having symptoms. "I didn't know what to tell them," recalls Joel.

On the third day of the clinic, one of the cold turkey quitters said that he felt really, really good today. Another cold turkey quitter had relapsed and was now claiming to have joined the cut-down quitters.

By day four (Friday), the 3 remaining cold turkey quitters were all feeling better, while the 3 original cutting-down quitters were suffering miserably. The cross-over quitter didn't return.

By Monday's session, Joel had witnessed a durable abrupt cessation vs. gradual weaning truth that reaches from NRT to e-cigs and would become his life's calling. The 3 cold turkey quitters were all doing fine, while everyone else was back to smoking at or near their original levels.

In addition to 690 single-session programs and seminars attended by more than 100,000 children and adults, Joel presented 325 13-day, six-sessions, 12-hour smoking cessation clinics.

Since beginning to share his work online in late 1999, Joel's reach has exploded with his insights touching and affecting millions of lives.

Joel's legacy includes his 100 original reinforcement letters sent to his clinic graduates (Joel's Library), his free ebook Never Take Another Puff, and his nearly 500 video quitting lessons (shared as Joel's Video Pages at WhyQuit and as Joel Spitzer's Stop Smoking Video Library on YouTube).

Joel also helped formulate the core rules governing participation at Turkeyville, WhyQuit's 13,000+ member cold turkey Facebook support group. Turkeyville is managed by two of Joel's early online students, Joy Kauffman and Sallie Hamilton.

And his work isn't limited to the English-speaking world. Volunteers have translated many of Joel's original reinforcement articles into Arabic, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

While Joel has retired, from his classic "My Cigarette, My Friend" to his basic "How to quit smoking" video, Joel's accomplishments are alive, being shared, and helping save lives.

I close with a public "thank you" to my mentor these past 20 years. Talk about a life well spent. It's you, Joel, who permanently etched into this brain the comforting realization that it's impossible to relapse so long as I stick to my original commitment to Never Take Another Puff! Your loving student. John

• "My cigarette." "My friend"
• "I can't quit" or "I won't quit"?
• How to quit smoking
• The Law of Addiction
• Minimizing the most common side effects to quitting smoking
• Are you smart enough for an IQ pin?
• Cold turkey quitting redefined again
• Kids just don't get it
• Contrary to what you may have heard – vaping is not safe
• 2020 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking Cessation

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