Closing out his first century, and still volunteering in Bucks

Around 9 a.m. Monday, Jack Lindsley will show up at Doylestown Hospital for his weekly three-hour shift as a volunteer, just as he has done for the last 20 years. But it will hardly be a typical morning sorting mail and delivering packages - it will be his 100th birthday.

"It's too much fuss, I don't need all this," the down-to-earth D-Day veteran said last week in the mail room, referring to the party the hospital has been planning and the two celebrations he has already had. He'd prefer to keep working "as long as the good Lord says so, as long as I'm able."

There's no formula for his longevity, no special diet or routine, Lindsley said. "Just being me. I eat when I'm hungry. I do things as I see fit to do them."

His only exercise is "to keep moving all the time," which he does quite well with a walker or the mail cart he pushes through the hospital's maze of hallways. The photo ID he wears is dated 1992, but there's a shiny pin attached marking the 9,000 volunteer hours he reached last month.

"He knows where the cartons go" even with the hospital's continuous expansion, said Bruce Keyser, his boss in the mail room. "He's a great guy, his mind's pretty sharp, and he gets around."

That includes dropping into the firehouse in Lambertville to make coffee and work fund-raisers for Columbia Fire Company 4. In 77 years with the company, "I've done everything there is to do, including chief," he said. He also served as fire marshal for Hunterdon County.

Lindsley lives in the same house in Lambertville that he and his wife, Ruth Elizabeth, moved into in 1936. It is six doors down from his childhood home and three doors from his daughter, Sandra Hoffman, who is 67. He has two granddaughters, ages 41 and 37, and a great-granddaughter, 19, in college.

He recalls his youth clearly - attending Lambertville High School and working as a clerk in the American Store, where he met his future wife. He drove commercial refrigeration trucks in Trenton for seven years, until 1943, when, in his early 30s, he enlisted in the Army. On Dec. 23, five days after his daughter was born, Lindsley shipped out to Europe.

As an amphibious engineer, he drove ducks - now known for tourist rides - to supply the troops. On D-Day, he ferried food, ammunition, and gas from ships a mile off the French coast to Omaha Beach while under fire.

He served in France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, and Germany. "I would have served with Patton, but my company couldn't catch up to him," Lindsley said, chuckling.

He was on a transport ship in the Mediterranean headed for Japan when the war ended, so he went to New York instead.

After living on his Army pay for a year, Lindsley worked for the Postal Service for 28 years as a carrier and clerk. "The Post Office didn't pay Social Security, so I worked in a deli after work."

In retirement, his comfortable life was jolted when his wife died in 1990.

"I didn't know what to do with myself," Lindsley said. "My doctor told me to volunteer, and I've been here ever since."

He started in the supply room, then staffed the information desk in the lobby before settling into the mail room.

He also does volunteer work for Sandy Ridge Community Church in Stockton, N.J., serving as a trustee.

He doesn't have any hobbies, he said, but he watches every Phillies game on TV and takes senior citizens trips to Atlantic City every chance he gets.

"The bus operator passed away, so I've missed it for a couple of weeks," Lindsley said wistfully. "I play most of the slots, but I don't get into the $5 ones."

"He usually comes home with about $30" in winnings, his daughter said.

His daughter and friends drive him around, and a cousin cleans the house, but otherwise Lindsley gets along on his own.

"I'm fortunate: I live by myself, and I take care of myself," he said. "I do cooking to my liking. Breakfast could be all three meals - I like bacon, eggs, and pancakes."

Meatloaf is one of his specialties, Hoffman said, and he used to make fudge.

"I have mighty good neighbors," he added. "They keep me well fed."

Lindsley has enjoyed good health, although he has suffered a heart attack and "maybe a slight stroke. If I did, I was fortunate," he said. He takes five pills a day - "that's less than I take," Hoffman said - including an aspirin and vitamin B12, plus a patch he wears at night to ease his breathing.

His parents lived into their 80s and his sister to 89; a sister and a brother died as children.

He misses friends who have passed on and "the good times in the firehouse that we don't have anymore," he said.

As for keeping up with the times, "I wouldn't have thought of the things they have today," such as computers, he said. "Cellphones - I don't have one.

"I don't know what the next 25 years are going to bring, but I don't have to worry about it."

With that, Lindsley headed off with his mail cart to deliver packages.

"I love to be with people," he said of the patients and office workers he has met. "I'll keep working here as long as they'll have me."

To watch a video of Jack Lindsley, who has done volunteer work for 20 years and will turn 100 on Monday, go to www.philly.com/

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