Posted on 11/20/2004 2:23:13 AM PST by M. Espinola
AP - Fred Hale Sr, an American documented as the worlds oldest man, has died in New York State.
He was 113 years old and had lived up to name.
At age 95 Hale even gave boogie-boarding a try, while flying home from Japan where he had visited a grandson who was in the Navy.
At 103, Hale was still living on his own and shovelling the snow off his rooftop.
Hale died in his sleep at The Nottingham in suburban Syracuse, while trying to recover from a bout of pneumonia, said his grandson, Fred Hale III.
He was 12 days shy of his 114th birthday.
Born on December 1st, 1890, Hale last month watched his lifelong favourite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, win the World Series again after 86 years. (Fred needed the victory after so many years of waiting)
Hale retired 50 years ago as a railroad postal worker and beekeeper, his grandson said. He enjoyed gardening, canning fruits and vegetables and making homemade applesauce.
"He had a routine and he rarely broke it because anyone else was around," Hale III told The Post-Standard of Syracuse.
"He didnt need a lot to be happy."
Born in New Sharon, Maine, when there were only 43 stars on the American flag, Hale married Flora Mooers in 1910.
Hale lived in his native Maine until he was 109, when he moved to the Syracuse area to be near his son, Fred Jr, now 82.
On March 5th, 2004, the Guinness World Records acknowledged him as the oldest living man when Joan Riudavets Moll, of Spain, died at age 114.
Hale was also a Guinness record-holder for the oldest driver. At 108, he had still found slow drivers annoying, Fred Hale III said.
Hale outlived his wife, who died in 1979, and three of his five children. He had nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.
Fred at his 113th birthday.
When Fred Hale Sr was only 111 with Elizabeth LéBeau, Certified Nursing Assistant
Impressive that life tell these stories, too. And then I look into today´s newspaper and learn that another child died of cancer...
Wow! What a great guy. He obviously had a positive attitude towards life. I don't know if I'd want to live that long, though...surviving your children is terrible.
He was one year younger than Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, older than the Duke of Windsor, older than the Queen Mum. Pushing 40 when the stock market crashed. Too old to enlist to fight in WWII. He was almost too old to enlist to fight in WWI!
Amazing story, eh?
Just Damn!
Just try and imagine what this man has seen over his lifetime.
Amazing
Good point.
Looks like a pretty small guy. I'd like to live to be that old, I'm 6'6, I'm doomed much beyond 65 or 70.
35 years ago
Amazing is right. Was just discussing the other day that my 3 year old daughter will never know life without the internet.
At age 95 Hale even gave boogie-boarding a try, while flying home from Japan.
Even in my best day I would not have tried this!!
I pointed out about 40 things we now use on a regular basis in the home that I did not have as a kid his age.
It all started because he could not fathom the concept that a glow in the dark Nerf Ball was basically a new invention in the large scale of things.
"Dad, did you play with a Nerf ball when you were a kid"
BTW, I was ten years old when they first come out.
From telegraphs to cellphones. From wood stoves to microwave ovens. From an empty sky to jet aircraft my God what this man has seen.
Congratulations and bravo on a life well lived and remembered.
I figure with leap years we can sport him the extra 12 days
I sometimes try and imagine what life will be like in 50 years, like yourself I will be in my 90's
The possibilities are endless. It helps I'm a glass half full rather half empty type of person.
Most likely we will have a President that is an infant or maybe not even born yet!
I think that excessive smoking and drinking contributed to his death........
Just the changes in the past 10 years have been incredible. In 1994, I was just getting my first computer and logging onto the Internet for the first time, which was only available through online services like Prodigy and CompuServe for $3.60 an hour. Wasn't much out there either. I was still getting my news on broadcast TV and actually had to wait until the 11PM news to get sports scores and weather.
Now I can pull up detailed weather forecasts anywhere in the world in just a few seconds and even see the weather on webcams. I have access to the same raw data as the meterologists. The information at my fingertips is overwhelming. My original hard drive was 129MB. I now have two 100GB drives on this computer alone and I have six computers in the house with over half a terrabyte of capacity. I have nearly 20,000 pieces of music that I can send to my home stereo or put on my iPod for the road.
Just a small, incidental example of how things have changed from 10 years ago. Then of course, we have Free Republic. Something that we could not possibly imagine doing without. Yet in 1994, it didn't exist at all. In 1994, I used to listen to radio talk show hosts and read columnists in newspapers and marvel at how smart they were. Now I listen to them and read them and can't believe how dumb they are. With the Internet, I feel that I am more up to speed on things than most radio talk show hosts and newspaper columnists are by and large dull and boring. I get better commentary on FR. But there are exceptions, such as Michelle Malkin and Mark Steyn. But these are Internet columnists - I've never read them in an actual newspaper.
It's obvious this guy died because he wasn't a vegetarian. Didn't he know that meat was bad for his health?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.