On Sunday, Fred Mack will celebrate his 100th birthday the same way he observed his 95th - by skydiving.
Later in the day, assuming he survives, a Hummer limousine will carry him to the Desmond Hotel in Malvern, where he will be feted by a hundred or so friends and admirers from the American Helicopter Museum and the Delaware Valley Jaguar Club, two organizations that are dear to him and where he remains active.
Displayed outside will be his 1953 Jaguar XK 120. Fred bought the car new that year and has owned and driven it ever since. The odometer reads 49,907, so it's no trailer queen. Everything is stock and original, except for the paint, upholstery, and top, which had to be refreshed. Recently, Mack received a letter from the managing director of Jaguar Cars Ltd., saluting him for being the longest-standing Jaguar owner and the oldest active Jaguar driver in the world.
"The amazing thing about it is it's a one-owner car," says Mike Tate, vice president of the Delaware Valley Jaguar Club. "For its age, it's in marvelous condition, a sheer delight to look at."
Mack intends to deliver the gorgeous ivory-colored roadster to the hotel himself.
"Everybody is offering to drive this for me. I can drive this myself!" he said a mite testily the other day as he showed the car to a visitor in the driveway of his Newtown Square home. He was planning to take the British classic to a specialty garage to be cleaned and detailed before the big event.
"That's what this noise is all about, my 100th birthday," Mack said.
A life that has lasted a century seems worthy of some noise. Mack was born on March 20, 1911, in Hagerstown, Md. A few days later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire in New York. It also was the year the Titanic launched, Omar Bradley began his studies at West Point, Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, and Cal Rodgers flew an airplane from coast to coast. Ground was broken for Fenway Park that year. Christy Mathewson was pitching; Ty Cobb hitting.
In 2003 or thereabouts, Mack composed a 20-page account of his life. It is a testament to his two abiding passions: automobiles and flying machines.
Interspersed with his career history - Mack worked as a machinist, designer, and engineer for such aircraft companies as Fairchild, Brewster, Curtiss, and Piasecki Helicopter - are stories of the many cars he has known and loved.
"I have owned 18 autos, from a little Crosley on up," Mack writes. "I have driven in 46 states, Mexico, and Canada. After more than 80 years of driving, I estimate that I have driven at least three million miles, mostly at top speed."
The Jaguar, with its sensual, aerodynamic body and six-cylinder, double-overhead-cam engine, made speed irresistible. When Mack purchased it for the wholesale price of $3,600 in 1953, the sleek sports car was guaranteed to go 120 m.p.h. Its speedometer advertised a maximum velocity of 140. Mack took the promise seriously.
"It was different from any other car you could buy in those days," Mack explains. Indeed, 1953 was the same year GM introduced a concept car designed by the legendary Harley Earl called the Corvette.
In 1965 or thereabouts, Mack and his late wife, Mary, decided to go to Virginia Beach. Rushing to catch the last ferry of the day, Mack covered 225 miles in 180 minutes.
"For the length of Delaware and then through Maryland, there were times I was cruising between 90 and 100 miles per hour," Mack confesses, "and waiting for a state trooper to jump out from behind every bush."
On another occasion, Mack was heading to Detroit to visit some GM friends. In Ohio, an Oldsmobile zoomed up from behind, kissing Mack's bumper. The driver, as Mack puts it, was "looking down his nose."
Mack decided to open it up. At 90, he shifted into overdrive. At 100, the Olds faded. Mack kept pushing the accelerator - 110, 120, 130. At 134 m.p.h., the tachometer was in the red zone.
"Isn't that enough for today?" Mary asked from the passenger seat.
"He seems to have driven everywhere about 90 miles an hour," says Tate, of the Jaguar Club. "He's not just a driver, he's a speed demon."
Whatever twist of DNA makes men prone to taking risks, Mack possesses it.
At age 95, he drove several laps in a Formula 101 race car.
An avid skier, he didn't quit schussing downhill until age 98, which is also when he took ultralight flying lessons.
Most impressive: In 1971, at age 60, he was courageous enough to marry again. His new bride was a woman he met through his ski club. They traveled widely together, driving more than 16,000 miles in 48 days in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. He refers to her now as "a Sexy Sue." She expected to be entertained erotically twice a day, and Mack attempted to comply. "I had more sex with her in a year than I did in 27 years with my first wife," he reports. The marriage fizzled out, and Mack is currently single, though not averse to dating younger women.
"I have a girlfriend who is 70 years old," he says. "She's a Jehovah's Witness who doesn't come to birthday parties."
Gerontologists say the trick to successful aging is staying active and involved. Mack could be a poster boy.
"He's very tenacious," says Tate. "He's a regular who turns up at all the shows and events."
At the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center in West Chester, where Mack has been a volunteer since 2002, Mack is "our mascot," says executive director Tim Conaway. "He epitomizes the volunteer base here - his dedication, his skill set, his knowledge, his willingness to contribute any and all."
Mack shows up at the museum two days a week, and over the years has used his design, engineering, and artistic skills to enhance exhibits and fabricate fittings, supports, and missing helicopter parts. His contributions include murals, simulated cockpit controls, and a seven-sided airport control tower for toddlers.
"He's an artist," says Bob Spencer, chairman of the exhibits committee. "And technically, he is just very capable."
Adds fellow volunteer Don Ekquist: "If there's a complicated part you want made, just give Fred a piece of aluminum and a ball-peen hammer and after a while it's done."
Expressing the view of many, Sherron Trio, who coordinates the museum's volunteers, says: "He's one hell of a vibrant 100-year-old man who has a lot of life left in him."