Bill Yoh, celebrating 100 years of life and love

Born in the age of rumble seats, ice boxes, and boys’ knickers, Bill Yoh has seen and experienced an enormous number of changes in the world over the past 100 years. Yoh will officially become a centenarian on Dec. 19, 2017. Born in rural Pennsylvania, and residing in Philadelphia for most of the first two-thirds of his life, Yoh has called Niwot his home since 1984 - over 33 years ago.

It was a snowy winter day in Eureka, PA, when Yoh’s mother went into labor. As if the urgency of the situation wasn’t concerning enough, Bill Yoh was accompanied by a twin brother, Bob, and neither of them were able to wait for their father to return with a doctor to assist with their delivery. Home alone, their mother gave birth to the pair.

While Yoh will say the secret to his longevity has been a healthy dose of of shoo-fly pie and scrapple, one could argue that the magic ingredient has been a lifetime of family love. From the way his parents met and became an instant pair, to the courting and commitment between Yoh and his wife Becky, to relocating to Colorado in order to be together with family, there’s a certainty and bond that surrounds him and his loved ones.

Yoh delights in the retelling of his family history and the story of his parents’ first encounter is especially poignant to him. Yoh’s mother and father met at a college football game, when his father looked up in the stands and spotted his sweetheart for the first time. His father didn’t waste any time that day. He walked up to her, introduced himself as the captain of the Ursinus College football team and then proceeded to invite her to a dance that night. And that is what leads Yoh to say, “If it weren’t for football, I wouldn’t have been born.”

And with those beginnings, of course his love of the sport was clinched. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the game to this day, watching as much as possible. His caregiver, Pam Dinkfelt, records every televised game for viewing at his leisure. His favorite professional team harkens back to his childhood days - the Philadelphia Eagles, and his favorite college teams are predictably, Penn State, and as a tribute to his and his father’s alma mater, Ursinus College.

Yoh’s story of meeting his own wife also holds a measure of randomness and inevitability. Yoh’s father was a minister who asked eight young women in his congregation to buoy the spirits of their hometown soldiers during WWII by writing letters to them. Each of the women drew the name of a soldier arbitrarily and one of them chose Rev. Yoh’s son Bill, who was stationed state-side as a clerk typist in the Air Corps.

Becky’s letters to him began casually, but bloomed into a romance that unfolded over a year of corresponding. Only three face-to-face dates later, the two decided to marry. They had a daughter named Christine, who sadly passed away as an infant. After several miscarriages, their son Paul was born. Their next child, Rachel, was chosen by three-year-old Paul, Yoh said. At four months old, “She was picked up by Paul who declared, ‘We’re taking her home!’” when they went to meet her.

Yoh worked in the hotel industry for a while, but spent 30 years working for C&D Batteries. Paul was the first in the family to move from Pennsylvania to Colorado. After Paul had children of his own here, the then-retired Yoh and his wife headed west to join them. Paul chose the renovated former elementary school on Niwot Road for his mother and father to live in, and they moved in based on his recommendation alone, never having seen it in person before.

Yoh has five grandchildren and two great grandchildren; Myla, six years old and Abby, six months old. Becky passed away in 1993 and was buried in the Niwot Cemetery. Yoh wears her wedding ring (enlarged to fit his finger) next to his band and closest to his heart to symbolize their eternal bond. He wants to be cremated and have his ashes combined with hers so they can be together forever.

Son Paul recalled a moment that exemplifies his dad’s love. “I was winning my first two-mile race at a track meet and I could hear my Dad rooting me on loud and clear! He was always there.” And Rachel said of Yoh’s steadfast paternalism, “Dad and I would go for walks in the woods and I always had a zillion questions, . . . and he always had a zillion answers.”

At his admirably mature age, he continues to keep his brain busy with his lifelong passion of stamp collecting. Devotedly working on his collection, he fills books with pre-cancelled and topical (thematic) stamps and includes in-depth information on the places they’re from and the origins of each stamp. His eyes aren’t quite as good as they used to be, so he uses a large screen magnifier to get an up-close view of each stamp.

“Stamps are history” Yoh said. He continues to attend monthly meetings of the Boulder Stamp Club. While he likes to say he “stole” his first stamp from a letter sent to his father by a woman doing missionary work in China, he still searches out and acquires stamps from many sources, including eBay these days.

Yoh’s passion for history goes further back in time and led to him become a paleontology and arrowhead buff. His labeled fossil and arrowhead collections are frame-worthy. Yoh recalled a particularly memorable trip to the UK with Becky in the summer of 1974, where they learned about prehistoric man at the University of North Wales and visited Stonehenge.

Yoh will be having two celebrations of his 100th birthday – one at China Panda in Longmont at 5 p.m. on Dec. 19, and another with his church family at Niwot United Methodist Church following the 10:20 a.m. worship service on Dec. 17. Both are open to friends near and far.

Yoh’s ancestors have a history of living into old age. He said his goal is to live to be 103 years old, because his grandma passed away just three days shy of her 103rd birthday.

If you ask Yoh how his health is, he’s likely to say “hunky dory!” His positive attitude, the kind and loving care of his family and Dinkfelt (including a schedule that highlights each day’s activities, even exercise), his desire to stay cognitively active, and yes, his love of the molasses based shoo-fly pie, have graced Yoh with a long and wonderful life. “Dad always says “People say they’re rich with money. I am rich with family’” Paul said.