TAMPA, Fla. — It’s not every day you meet someone who lives to be 100.

World War II veterans have a lifetime of knowledge to share. 

We caught up with Gloria Churchill as she was busy planning a very special party for her father, Merle Ralph Shreffler.

All his friends call him Ralph.

“He’s a heart stopper. Still is,” she said.

Ralph’s father served in World War I and, as a member of the greatest generation, he served in WWII.

On July 27th, 1944, he went into the Army Air Corps.

“And he was in communications,” said Gloria.

Her dad was a radio operator in Casablanca until 1946.

While military service defined his life for a short time, what prioritized his heart for a lifetime was his family and the love he shared with his wife, Iona. 

“If mom and dad would have been married for three more months, they would have been married for 75 years,” Gloria said.

After she died in 2018, Gloria helped her dad move from his home in Arizona to Florida. 

Every day, she heads out the door for a visit.

“Five blocks, right around the corner,” she said.

Even at 100, Ralph lives independently and likes his own routine.

We asked him to sit down and share some words of wisdom, starting with his service.

“I enjoyed it. I didn’t get any ratings or anything. I’m not a hero. I’m not a hero at all. I just did the job and came home,” he said.

Home was his heart.

“The nicest part of our marriage, after 75 years and all, we had no arguments, just a nice couple all our lives. If something came up we disagreed on, we waited a couple days, talked about it, and we found a way to solve it. That’s the way we lived our whole life that way,” said Ralph. 

He says the secret to longevity is living a clean life.

He gave up coffee and cigarettes after the war.

Gloria says her dad always lived the way he wanted to live.

“People today that have all the things to live with that they think is necessary, I think they could do without them and be a lot better off, but that’s up to them,” Ralph said.