By Clark Judge
(July 16, 2025) — Andy Kuczma has traveled the globe, met the Pope, flown with Charles Lindbergh, had a laugh with Zsa Zsa Gabor, served in the military, been a flight engineer, flown planes, worked in the Ross Perot campaign, modeled in print ads and been an EMT and firefighter. Basically, he’s done it all. But to call him an experienced man isn’t exactly fair. He’s more a man of experiences, with virtually nothing … or no one … he hasn’t touched.
Which is what makes July 16, 2025 so extraordinary. Guaranteed, it will be unlike anything Andy Kuczma has been through. As a matter of fact, it’s unlike anything most people have been through. That’s because on July 16th Andy Kuczma celebrates … drum roll, please … his 100th birthday!!!
Now, no one is certain if that makes him the oldest resident of Killingworth, but, according to those who should know, it does make him the oldest military veteran in town. It also makes him the oldest living member of the Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company and Ambulance Association. Impressive, right? Not to Kuczma, who doesn’t even have a party planned for the occasion.
“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said this week.
Others do. A Life Member of the KVFC, Kuczma was treated to a 100th birthday party recently at the KVFC’s monthly meeting. Then, on July 19th, he’ll be the guest of honor at yet another birthday bash … this one also at the Killingworth fire station … from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
“What are you hoping to get from your guests? he was asked.
“Their presence,” he said, grinning at his choice of homophones.
Fair enough. We brought our presence to his two-story Colonial home, wondering what it’s like to have gone through the Depression, a World War, Korea, Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, 9-11, COVID, you name it … all in one lifetime … and what advice he has for others. This is what we found.
Q: You say you’re underwhelmed by turning 100. Why?
KUCZMA: Because I don’t think it’s a reward. It’s more like closure. I can’t taste. I can’t small. I can barely see. I can barely hear. I’ve always been a doer, and I can’t do anything anymore. My “big deal” was flying for twelve hours with Charles Lindbergh years ago when we flew together on a cargo plane from New York to California and back.
Q: Oh, that’s right. You were a flight engineer for Pan Am. But you weren’t qualified to fly planes, were you?
KUCZMA: Oh, yeah. I’m qualified to fly a 747. I can fly a Cessna 150, too. I went from a 150 to a 707.
Q: You were born in 1925, which means you went through the Great Depression. What was it like then?
KUCZMA: Our house was small. I had two brothers, but one was gone most of the time because he was 10-to-11 years older. We had kerosene lamps, a well, a wood-burning stove and an outhouse. There was no car. Just a horse and buggy. This house (he points to the home where he lives now) is a mansion compared to what I had to grow up in. In Massachusetts in the 1930’s, it would get to 40 below zero in winter, and the house would be only as warm as the wood we brought in. Ice would form on water on the stove if you left it alone. In fact, I remember one day I got in my bed and found I had a bedmate. A mouse was in there with me because it was the warmest place for him. Nobody had any money. The thing is: If you had a problem, I helped you. And if I had a problem, you helped me. There was no money involved … because there was no money. I spent eight years in a two-room school, with an upstairs and downstairs and two boys and two girls in class most of the time. Originally, we lived half a mile from school, and it was about a 600 foot drop in elevation from the school to our house. So I’d walk up with my sled and be home almost with the speed of sound.
Q: What’s your favorite memory as a child?
KUCZMA: I was probably 10 when it snowed one day, then rained and finally crusted over. I went sledding with a friend of mine, Ray Haskell, whose father had a steam lumber mill. With a steam mill, you had to have a water hole, so Ray wanted to get on the ice. He’s hollering to me, “Jump behind me to push me out,” so he can get there. I pushed the sled down there, and you can guess what happened. The next thing I know: He’s telling his mother I pushed him into the pond.
Q: What’s your advice to children today?
KUCZMA: Be honest and have integrity. In my career, when I screwed up, I would get called to the office … and I’d just put down the facts as to how it happened. And they said, ‘Well, it shouldn’t have happened, but we appreciate your straight-forwardness and not lying about it.
Q: To what do you owe your longevity?
KUCZMA: I was born poor. All my life I’ve been assisting people. Basically, my longevity is due to being active.
Q: For anyone who wants to follow you to 100, what’s your advice?
KUCZMA: Don’t hate anybody. Everybody needs a hand at some point.
Q: What have you learned in 100 years?
KUCZMA: It’s not always the smartest people who are the best people. Education is what you learn after school. I did three phases. The first 30 years, it was farming, construction work, a lumber mill and all that. The next 30 years, I was a flight engineer with Pan Am. And then the next 30 years, with the Ambulance and Fire Company.
Q: So what are you going to do in the next 30?
KUCZMA: Try to get somebody to listen to me.
Q: What’s your greatest accomplishment … that is, other than hitting 100?
KUCZMA: Joining the Fire Company was the wisest move I made in retirement. When I hit 50, we had a captain at Pan Am who wrote an article called “Rigor Mortis.” It said to make up your mind when you hit 50 as to what you’re going to do when you’re 60. So I joined the Fire Company, but I didn’t join for a uniform. I don’t need another uniform. I joined to do things.
Q: If could live your life over, what would you do differently?
KUCZMA: Nothing. Everything I did seemed to work out.
Q: OK. But if you had one day to live over, what would it be?
KUCZMA: I remember on one trip to South Africa where we flew into Johannesburg, and, after flying 34 hours on a DC-6, you hit the hay. So, the next day I walk into the hotel lobby, and Zsa Zsa Gabor is there with some guy, and she sees me. So she comes running up to me and says, “I know you from somewhere.” And I said, “Yeah, I know. We spent last night together.” She said, “I don’t think so. I was on an airplane.” And I told her, “That’s where I was.”
Q: What’s the key to a happy life?
KUCZMA: My great grandson has a knack that I think is good — he wants to help. He just turned 6, and he comes in here and says, “I’ll clean the floor for you.” He wants to help, and I think that’s so important. You should want to help, not for monetary reasons or what you can get out of it.
Q What are you most grateful for?
KUCZMA: I can go back wherever I’ve been, and they’ll always look up to me. I was grateful to work at Pan Am because most of them respected you. What gets me is there’s no honesty now. You can’t believe what you hear.
Q: What would you like to see happen in the next 100 years?
KUCZMA: I’d like to see people get back to being honest with others. You go into the banks today, and they tell you you’re getting the highest percentage of interest ever … except I can show you bank books where I was getting 15% back.
Q: 100 years from now, how would you like to be remembered?
KUCZMA: As a guy with integrity. If I say it’s going to happen, I want it to happen. I don’t want you to tell me you’re going to do a job, and then six weeks later you’re still talking about it. Just do it and get it over with.
Photo by Clark Judge
