Living the Life of Riley with 96-Year Old World War II Veteran Mr. Donald Sperier

Mr. Donald Sperier is a 96-year old World War II Veteran who retired as a mechanical engineer in his 60s. These days, he still drives, attends Catholic mass every Sunday, and drinks coffee on his porch (some days in his robe till 2pm).

As a child of the Depression, Mr. Sperier has always been frugal-minded. Those frugal ways (and high-paying jobs) have allowed him to be incredibly generous through the years—helping nieces and nephews with car purchases & school tuition.

In this episode, we discuss Mr. Sperier’s time during the war. He wanted to be a naval aviation pilot “on the carriers.” He recalls how they faked his colorblind test so he could advance to the next round of screening.

It wasn’t until the next physical exam that he was busted. He’d have to give up on his dream of serving in the Naval Air Force and join the Merchant Marine Cadet Corp.

He finished basic training and started his maritime training as a cadet in King’s Point, New York, which he says was “heaven on earth.” Why? There were so many women to choose from. Apparently, all the 19-20 year old men were off at war, which meant those men training at King’s Point had their choice of young gals.

Mr. Sperrier didn’t take many trips to Europe—his deployment called for only 3 months of sea duty. Though he does remember fondly the brand new T2 tanker he rode as part of the convoy to Britian.

We also talk about his career after the war ended. He worked as a test engineer at Pratt & Whitney, then got word the United States planned to go to the moon.

He said he had to figure out a way to work on “the moon shot”—a project he definitely wanted to part of. At Chrysler, he helped to build the Saturn rocket that propelled the first man to the moon. The rest, as they say, is history.

This episode was uniquely awesome. Hope you enjoy it and learn as much as I did!

Questions asked:

Do you stay in your robe until 2pm?
Can you walk me through your typical day?
Do you have a favorite kind of coffee?
Would you say you’re frugal-minded?
When you left to go out to sea, did you have any idea that it was going to be one, two, or three years?
Were you overjoyed when you heard about the bombings in Hiroshima & Nagasaki?
Did you partake in the baby boom? Did you start a family shortly after the war?
Were you a bachelor in your 30s?
How were you able to ‘hold out’ on marriage?
Do you remember the day JFK was assassinated?
Would a trip to Mars be the sort of project you’d be excited to work on?
Did you have anybody that you were writing letters to (corresponding with)?
Do you remember the first thing you played on your [new] audio equipment?
Give me some groups/bands that you were into at that time.
What made you want to retire?
When you saw how the rest of the world lived, did that influence how you lived when you got back to the United States?
What was your dad’s job? Did your mom work? How many siblings did you have?
Did your dad encourage you to get a good job that you could maintain over a long period of time & get the “golden watch” after 30 years?
What was the composition of the city in terms of whites & blacks?
Do you remember your first television set?
Was it common knowledge that you were going to have to go to war?
Could you foresee at age 14 or 15 that [war] was going to be a big part of your future?
What does “dog face” mean?
What were you thinking & feeling when Japan was bombed? Did you sense that this could lead to nuclear war?
Do you think COVID-19 was an act of war?
Are you more likely to believe it was an accident or is this the new sort of warfare that we’re now going to encounter?
Were you worried about catching COVID & being in the hospital?
Where did you put your money [thru the years]?
Were you chasing excitement or more money?
How did you learn about mutual funds?
Were you the envy of all your friends?
What was the name of your boat?
Do you ever have regrets about not having a family of your own?
[Question to Brad] Did you get married in the church?
Where did you go to high school?
Do you fear living in an old folks’ home?
Have you been to a lot of funerals in the last 10-15 years?
Do you fear death at all?
Is there anything you’d do differently if you could go back to when you were 20/30/40 years old?
Do you still go to church regularly?
Do you ever fear running out of money?
Do you still have money in your mutual funds?
Did you ever get that sense of being wanted [by women] back?
What’s the most beautiful place you’ve been?
Do you have somewhere that you want to go?
Do you have a souvenir that you value most?
When’s the last time you had a relationship with a woman?
Do you have a favorite book/movie?
Do you use Google?
Have you ever heard of cryptocurrency?
Have you ever done any journaling?
Is tithing something you’ve done through the years?
Did you always know that you were going to help relatives with college & cars? Or was that a decision you made once you realized that you had excess money & didn’t have a family of your own?

Fun questions:

If you could spend two weeks anywhere in the world & money were no object, where would you go?
You’re a Jeopardy contestant & you get to choose the category for Final Jeopardy—what category would you choose?
If you were tied with the other contestants for $10,000 each & the category was Astronomy— would you wager it all?
If I gave you $100,000 & forced you to invest it in Amazon, Apple, or General Electric, which would you choose?
If somebody dropped $1 million in your lap tomorrow, what would you do with it?
Do you feel overly blessed for how many years you’ve gotten to live thus far?
What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome in life?
Who was the Cindy Crawford of your time, let’s say, when you were 25-35 years old?
Have you ever met any celebrities?
If you had one last meal to eat in a New Orleans restaurant, which one would you go to?
Do you cook [for] yourself?
What did the neighborhood look like 85 years ago?
Do you expect to live to 110 or 112 [years old]?

Listen here:

Books mentioned:

Gone with the Wind (link to original copy) by Margaret Mitchell

Other topics discussed:

Questions asked:

Fun questions:

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Books mentioned:

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