90 years and counting
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on July 6, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/JOEY PITCHFORD
Members of the Golden K Kiwanis group eat together at Ed's Southern Food and Spirits after their meeting Tuesday morning. The group spent the meeting honoring their members 90 years and older.
The Golden K Kiwanis paid homage to their older members Tuesday morning as the group celebrated those among them age 90 and older.
In total, nine men were brought to the front of the room to share their experiences with the rest of the group. Kenneth Wilkins, 94, Frank Joyner, 95, Bud Best, 90, Ray Kleber, 91, Mike Farfour, 90, John Fisher, 91, Relmond Grady, 92, and J.D. Pike, 91, took a seat in front of their fellow members and answered questions about their lives.
The men talked about their lives growing up, and how they came to live in Wayne County. Some were born and raised here. Others, like Fisher, ended up here at the tail end of long careers. Fisher was born in Kalamazoo, Mich.
"If you don't know where that is, don't worry," he said. "I don't either."
He grew up about two hours away in Ann Arbor, and later went on to serve in the Army, Navy and later the Air Force. Between all of that, however, existed a nearly 20-year career in pediatric medicine which Fisher said was one of the things in his life he was most proud of.
Kleber, a relatively new member of the Kiwanis group, spoke about his own storied military career. He served as commander of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base from 1973 to 1975, and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2014 for his service in the Civil Air Patrol during World War II. He also served in the Vietnam War, with a total of 32 years spent as a combat pilot. He said he wanted to be remembered for his courage, and for his dedication to the airmen on Seymour Johnson.
After the prepared questions had been answered, a member of the audience asked the assembled men what advice they could offer for the younger men (meaning those around age 70) who would soon be approaching their age. They offered wisdom not only for those in attendance, but also for young people in general. Along with advice such as "pay off your credit cards" the older Kiwanians gave some pieces of advice geared more toward simply staying happy. Farfour, who had provided a number of humorous answers to previous questions, got serious for a moment when answering this one.
"Have a happy marriage," he said.
The most common answers, however, all had something to do with family. Many of the men said that their wedding days were the proudest moments of their lives, and that their children and grandchildren continued to make them proud to this day.
Pike, who said that his wife and family made him more proud than anything else, had a simple request when it came to his own legacy.
"I'd just like people to remember me, period," he said.