At 20 years old, he was on a ship, sailing east across the Atlantic toward Liverpool, England. Today, such a voyage would be the start of an exciting adventure. But back in March 1943, it was a very different story for young Garry Clapp and his comrades. When a torpedo was launched from a nearby German submarine, the ship nearest to Garry in the convoy was hit and sank in just seven minutes. That act was the beginning of his experience of World War II. Three months later, just seven days after D-Day, he was on his way to France. A year later, he experienced VE-Day in Paris, and a year after that, found himself back home in Ohio again.
This year, in July, Garry reached the remarkable age of one hundred and says that getting this old has been the biggest surprise of his life. “I never imagined I would live this long. I never thought I would get out of World War II alive. I never expected to see 21,” he says. “So, I’ve had a lot of bonus years!” September 22 is National Centenarian Day, a day to honor those who’ve celebrated 100 birthdays or more. Senior Village currently includes just one other member who is 100, and three more will be hitting the century mark this year. Nationwide, an estimated 108,000 people are centenarians—and of those, approximately 60 to 70 of them are supercentenarians who have reached the age of 110!
As other older adults frequently note about their lives, time sped up for Garry once he was home from the war. At one of his first jobs after college graduation, he met his wife—and the love of his life—Marge Kavka. Following many years of being ‘friends,’ he and Marge realized they were much more than that. They married in 1965 and left the next day to start a new life in California, where Garry was embarking on a new leadership position with his company. After Garry’s retirement 21 years later, they moved to Indian Wells near Palm Springs, where Garry could better pursue his longtime passion of golf. Garry became a charter member of PGA West, where four golf courses were under construction. He achieved his best ever score in golf there, a 72 on the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West.
In 1993, Garry and Marge moved to SaddleBrooke, where they continued living together happily and well until Marge’s death in 2012. Garry reports that although he was absolutely devastated at the time, remembering a pact he and Marge had made with each other has continued to help him move forward: whichever of them became the survivor should be thankful for their many years together and do everything possible to fully enjoy whatever time was left. Honoring that pact, Garry pursued the peak years of yet another lifelong passion: freshwater fishing. He found the first-class fishing lodge of his dreams in northwest Ontario and spent five seasons making the annual 5,000-mile round trip to enjoy “unbelievably good fishing” with the help of a full-blooded First-Nation guide and friend with whom he spent a total of 17 weeks fishing.
Thinking back over his very long life that included both good times and bad, Garry closed our conversation with, “I have learned many lessons during my 100 years of life, but I think the most important is that whenever things get so bad that it seems hopeless, you should never give up because there will always be good days ahead to enjoy.”
Tucson Rep. Juan Ciscomani's brother-in-law calls his border politics hypocritical
