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.
