When former President Carter passed away earlier this month, much was made of the fact that he was the longest living U.S. President having attained the age of 100. Irrespective of your thoughts on Carter’s presidency, it’s clear that his accomplishments in his nearly forty-four, post-presidency years were a tribute to a life well lived.
I was reflecting on this recently when I came across the obituaries of two other, much lesser-known, centenarians who also made significant contributions to society.
Ágnes Keleti at 103 years of age, was a survivor of the Holocaust and the oldest, living Olympic medal winner which included five gold medals for Hungary in the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games.
While she survived the war along with her mother and sister, her father and other relatives perished at Auschwitz.
Among her many accomplishments Keleti worked as a trainer and coached the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team well into her 70s.
Warren Upton, at 105 years of age was the oldest survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a 22-year-old Navy radioman assigned to the USS Utah, when the first of two torpedoes struck the vessel the morning of December 7, 1941.
As the Utah began to capsize, Upton and hundreds of other servicemen found themselves in Hawaiian waters. Upton towed one of his shipmates, who was not a strong swimmer, to safety on a nearby islet until the bombing and strafing ceased.
After the war, Upton used the skills he acquired in the Navy in the field of radio repair working for several companies including United Airlines and General Electric.
A dedicated husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, he also served in a leadership role in the local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
If you’d like to learn more about these two centenarians, you can access their obituaries via the links below.
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