Oldest Eagles member celebrates 97th birthday

Wednesday, December 29, 2021
T. P. Huffman

Making it to 97 years old might be considered quite a feat now. Him being an individual of the Greatest Generation, though, it perhaps does not come to a surprise Thomas Paul “T. P.” Huffman has.

The Greencastle Eagles, which Huffman joined 21 years ago, marked its oldest member’s birthday with a party Tuesday evening.

Huffman was born in 1924 in Grand Rapids, Mich., but then his family eventually relocated to Indianapolis. As such, he “played hooky a lot” in school before he graduated from William McKinley School 39.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Huffman remembered that his family would receive a basket of food a week. He hustled a job putting up posters for a couple of dollars and was able to go to the movies on a dime (and get an ice cream cone, too).

His adventure of a lifetime came when he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942, in which he almost did not get in because of his height. After training in Pensacola, Fla., Huffman served as a “land sailor,”as he characterized it, in the Aleutian Islands and Okinawa. Basically, this meant taking care of the Army Air Corps.

After he got out of the Navy, Huffman began working at Chrysler in Indianapolis in 1953 and retired from there in 1986. As such, his wife Janice stipulated that his family has only bought Chryslers with “a pretty good” discount they receive.

Janice related she and T. P. used to winter between Indiana and Florida, but really did “nothing exciting” after he retired from Chrysler.

Nonetheless, they have had a home here since 1973 and are permanent residents.

While he might not get around now as well as he used to, Janice related that he was once a good euchre player.

Huffman said being 97 years old is “beautiful,” and this is because he has friends and “nice people to live with.” Little doubt he was referring to his blood family as well as his Eagles family.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: