My older brother was six years older than I. He was an outstanding athlete. He used to brag about me, and he always encouraged me, as did my parents. They were very good people, very religious and conservative. We had an older sister, too.

You moved from Nebraska to come to Cleveland?
No. I came here later to go to (what is now) the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. My dad had taken a job with a church in Michigan when I was a sophomore in high school. I finished high school the same year my brother was discharged from the army in WWII. He wanted to finish college at Nebraska Wesleyan, where he'd started. We wanted to room together. So I turned down a scholarship at Central Michigan University to room with my brother for a year at Nebraska Wesleyan (laughs). I have no regrets.

What did you major in?
Sociology and psychology. My dad and mother were of the belief that one's objective in life should involve doing things for others: something that would make the world a better place. I was told by people that I might have been able to be a professional baseball player. But my dad said I had to do something that was "worthwhile."

So I became a social worker. I didn't decide what I wanted to do until I was a junior in college. I graduated in 1950. Then Uncle Sam beckoned. I was in the Army from Jan. 1951 until Jan. 1953. I worked in a mental hygiene clinic with soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas. It was mostly those in basic training who were having a hard time adjusting to the rigors of Army life. My wife and I got married in 1952 while I was in the Army.

How did you meet her?
In a boring economics class at Nebraska Weslyean. The professor, who was really bad (chuckles), seated us alphabetically. Her name was Palmquist and mine was Poe. But I had noticed her before. She was frantically tearing around the library-she was an oustanding student. I thought, "anybody that intense probably would be interesting." We started going together around 1949. She graduated in 1952 and five days later we got married. We wrote a letter to each other every day for two years, while I was in the Army.

What did you want out of your career?
I've run the gamut. I started out in child welfare. I was at Bellefaire for three years. By that time we had one child and we knew we were going to have more, so I took a better paying job at the Federation for Community Planning as a regional planning associate. I was responsible for Lake and Geauga counties.

In 1963 I was appointed Executive Secretary of the Committee on Older persons at the Federation. I did that for three years. Then I was Executive Director of the UAW Retired Workers Centers, as well as Project SMILE, which helped people maintain themselves in their own homes in East Cleveland, Collinwood and Glenville. I was at the Suicide Prevention Center from 1971 to 1984. We lost our funding and had to close it down. At the age of 56, I had to go job-seeking. I was fortunate to get a job as a psychiatric social worker with Kaiser Permanente. I spent from 1985 to '93 doing that, then I retired.

You said on your (MythBuster Contest) entry form that when you worked with older people as a social worker, you used to tell them, "use it or lose it." How would they react back then, since that was an era when exercise for older people was not encouraged?

They were supposed to go sit on the porch and wait for the undertaker. By golly, if you did that, he'd come. I think this goes back to one of your earlier questions about why I'm doing what I'm doing. In my dad's case, the doctor told him to rest. Well, he rested. And he just deteriorated. I think I'm having something of a reaction formation to that. I'm not going to do what he did. If you have an ache, go work out until the ache is gone. He was only 75 when he died. That doesn't seem old to me anymore, now that I'm 73. They said he an adult form of muscular dystrophy, but I'm convinced that his muscles simply atrophied. So that is motivation for me.

How did working with the elderly change while you were in the field?
I'll tell you about "old crockism" I encountered back then. Doctors were called that when they treated someone over age 65. No one over 65 could get a mental health appointment. Fortunately, that's no longer the case. Older people deserve our respect. I remember saying to young social work students, "The worth of a civilization is determined by the level of respect it affords its elderly." We're doing much better these days.

During your career, were you athletic?
I was watching my own children compete and managing Little League baseball teams for many years. But I've always done calisthenics. If I wasn't doing something, I was watching something. All my life, I've gotten up in the morning and done push ups and chin ups. Chin ups are important for upper body strength, which is really important for pole vaulting.

When you retired you had the intention of going to play more tennis.
I retired in October 1993 and my social work license was set to be renewed in April 1994. But I never renewed it; I was too busy! My goal was to become a tennis champion. I was in national tournaments. It's very organized: Super Senior Tournaments of the United States Tennis Association. I had a great time doing that and did it for the next four years, traveling around to tournaments in the Midwest. In the wintertime, Pat and I would go to Florida. There'd be a tennis tournament every week.

But in the fall of 1997 I got a retinal vein occlusion. That's when the vein from the retina gets backed up with "stuff"-that's the best way to describe it-and destroys some of the macula. So I have blurred and distorted vision in my left eye. It destroyed my depth perception. I couldn't tell how fast the ball was coming toward me.

When you had your retinal occlusion, you felt sorry for yourself for awhile. What catapulted you out of that?
I played tennis with a psychiatrist named John Sawyer. We'd meet at the Shaker Heights High School courts at 5:30 every Monday. In 1997, I got a Christmas card from his wife, saying, "John really misses the tennis." I called him up and asked him what the problem was. He said, "I have Lou Gehrig's disease." So at that point I thought a little glitch in one's eye is relatively insignificant compared to that. He's since died.

I continued trying to play tennis until March 1998. In April 1998, I gave up tennis for good and went into track and field.

You wasted no time.
I just decided to do something that I at one time had done pretty well. I entered a lot of events. I started in 1998, running the 100- and 200-meter dashes. I wasn't in condition to do pole vaulting. You have to have your stomach and upper body muscles in condition.

What made you choose pole vaulting?
I had done it before. It's what I'm best at (laughs). I had done it in high school and college. I got back in good physical condition before I took it up again. In June 1999, I went over the crossbar for the first time since 1948, but it took several tries. I'd run down the runway, get to the end of it, and stop. After half a dozen of these, I finally got up the nerve to try it. Finding myself still intact, I've been doing it ever since.

Our track club is named the "Over the Hill" track club. Incidentally, I told them I couldn't join anything called the Over the Hill club, because in order to be over the hill, you have to have reached the top of the hill in the first place (laughs).

It seems like a more exciting sport than running or discus throwing.
With pole vaulting, there are 32 different kinds of actions. It's a very complicated sport. I think it's a beautiful sport. You have to turn, revolve over the bar. It has to be coordinated properly: you have to plant the pole in the right spot, you have to put your arms in the right position, you have to kick, you have to turn at the top-the stomach has to face the bar.

I do about 150 crunches a day, 24 chin ups, 60 push ups, and other exercises. Vaulting puts a lot of stress on your arms, stomach and legs. That's probably why there probably aren't a lot of older guys who do it. There are a couple of us in the area, but there isn't a lot of competition. We compete in five year-age groups.

It's almost acrobatic in a way.
It is; I've always said there are three requirements to be a pole vaulter: speed, acrobatic ability and craziness.

What do you think of bungee jumping?
Now you have to be really crazy for that! (laughs) Being athletic is one thing, but that's more a thrill-seeker thing.

Do your kids come out and see you compete? How athletic are they?
Yes. They like to brag about me. They all got letters in various sports in high school. They also played stringed instruments. One son was a wrestler and a violinist. That destroys stereotypes and myths, right? I always enjoyed that.

Did you ever feel maybe you could've been a professional athlete?
Oh yeah, I think about it. But back in those days, baseball players worked side jobs to make ends meet. If they were paying the kinds of salaries then that they pay now, I might have been encouraged to defy my dad (laughs).

What's your attitude toward aging successfully: Is it a mindset? Is it a combination of mindset and physical ability? Or only physical wellness?
If you convince yourself you're old, you're going to be old. My definition of old age is anyone who's 10 years older than I am (laughs). I don't feel old. I know people look at me and they see an older man. But I feel the same as I did when I was a teenager.

My next door neighbor died when he was 77. For five years, before he died, he kept saying, "I don't have much time left." If you brainwash yourself into thinking, "I'm going to die," it's gonna happen.

Besides exercising and competing, how else do you spend your free time?
I like to do crossword puzzles and listen to music. I like to read, but my eyesight limits me. I like to work in the yard. Believe it or not, I like to mow the lawn. It's relaxing. I watch high school sports-three or four of us old geezers sit around and talk sports. I love watching athletic events. I'm an avid Indians and Browns fan. And, my sons and I own a few thoroughbred race horses. I watch them run when I'm not!

Where do you want to be in 10 years?
In 10 years, I want to be the national pole vault champion of the 80-and-over age division. There's a remarkable 80-year-old who set a world record pole vaulting nine feet. That's a foot better than I do! On a good day I do eight feet; on an average day I do seven and a half feet. You get more leverage, swing if you're taller. That's just a disadvantage I have to overcome; I'm short.

One thing about growing older is the older you get, the harder it is to keep the weight off. Each year you get older, you have to reduce your caloric intake to maintain the same weight. It's hard. It should work in reverse! (laughs)