https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/09/21/berkeley-hot-tub-guy-and-78-year-old-bastion-of-weirdos-died-on-saturday/

Deward Hastings took his time warming up to new people. The opposite can be said about his backyard Berkeley hot tub — precisely set at a scalding yet lively 113.5º using a laboratory-grade mercury thermometer.

The 78-year-old, a longtime Berkeley fixture known to many simply as “the Hot Tub Guy,” opened up the handcrafted redwood tub behind his Essex Street home as a sanctuary to the outside community — free of charge — for nearly 50 years.