!
能工作不是一種難得福祐嗎?
他是美國最老的工作者, 他的故事溫馨又感人.
此篇送給一些盡忠職守, 孜汶不倦的上班族!
Quoted from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_McBurney
Ralph Waldo McBurney (October 3, 1902 — July 8, 2009), usually known as Waldo, was said to be the oldest worker in the United States. Until a relatively short time before his death at age 106, he lived and worked as a beekeeper in the city of Quinter, Kansas. Although he was born in Quinter and had lived in the Quinter area for many years,he had also lived near the Kansas cities of Sterling and Beloit. In his last years, he was recognized nationwide for his longevity.
He was the third of six children born to George R. and Mary B. (Huston) McBurney. After two years at Sterling College, he transferred to the Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), from which he graduated in 1927. Two years later, he married the former Irene Spear; together, they had three children. After her death in 1960, he married the former Vernice Forman in 1962, twelve years younger than he; she is still living. He suffered a heart attack in 1994, but continued competing afterward. He died at the Gove County Medical Center in Quinter on July 8, 2009.]
Although he himself was not a minister, both his father and his son Kenneth McBurney (still living) have been ministers in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, in which he was an elder. His father, too, was long-lived, being the oldest minister in the denomination at his death.
In October 2006, McBurney was recognized as the oldest worker in America by Experience Works.As a result, he was featured in newspapers nationwide and on the CBS television program Assignment America. He is also a past recipient of the "Hometown Health Hero" award given by the Governor of Kansas.
CBS reference:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/08/assignment_america/main2243516.shtml
(CBS) If you drive into Quinter, Kan., and ask anyone, "Where's Waldo?" they'll tell you he's at work, of course.
Ralph Waldo McBurney still goes to work at his honey business every day, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America. Unfortunately, summer is bee season, so things aren't exactly buzzing now. But the mere fact that he shows up at all earned him the title "America's Oldest Worker," an honor recently bestowed on him at a ceremony in Washington.
Waldo is 104 years old, and has a driver's license to prove it. It doesn't expire until 2010.
"The license may last longer than I do," he says.
Don't count on it. Ralph Waldo McBurney has already outlived even his gravestone's expectations. Written on his headstone is "1902-19--."
"I'm just going to let somebody else worry about that," he explains with a laugh.
Waldo says he's still here because he never smoke or drank and always ate his vegetables. And, perhaps there's another secret to his longevity: He keeps very busy.
He even wrote a book. It's a self-published autobiography called "My First 100 Years." During the off-season for honey, he keeps buys signing every single copy and mailing every single order, which isn't easy. When you're 104, sometimes getting off the porch isn't easy.
But Waldo insists on staying active, basically because it beats the alternative — hiring a stone mason. Or, as Waldo put it, "Use it or lose it!"
