Perhaps it was a telling sign when Ron Knee found steady work during the Depression.
He held a job essentially every day thereafter until he retired. And he tried just about all of them.
Knee spent the Depression helping to repair train tracks, a job he secured through a friend, and performing various other odd jobs, before also taking a job with the Works Progress Administration. After that he worked for the railway mail service, delivered mail for the Concord Post Office for almost 30 years, spent time at a handful of dry cleaners, including one he owned, in his own words, “for a while,” and eventually opened his own real estate business, which he operated for two decades. Got all that? We'll let you catch your breath for a second.
Ready? Oh, he also spent four years in the service, was an experienced sled dog racer and golfed with Mickey Rooney and Stan Musial.
“I've just been a busy guy all my life,” Knee said. “And I've got no complaints.”
Knee was celebrated as one of the five most senior residents at Beaver Meadow Villager on Aug. 26, and, at age 96, was the eldest of those recognized. Of course, his Beaver Meadow ties go deeper than most.
He was working in real estate when many of the units were first being leased, and the grounds certainly made an impression on him. Years later he bought a residence there essentially at first site and has lived in three of the units on the property with his first wife, Evon, and his current wife, Edie.
“When I was working in real estate, I sold a lot of the units when they were being built, and I always said when I retire, that's where I'm coming.”
The word retirement is used loosely with Knee. An accomplished golfer who five times won the State Golf Association title, he continued to tee off until a rotator cuff injury forced him to stop at age 92. He recently returned from Florida – where he Edie spend their winters – with a renewed driver's license that will expire in 2018. He'll be 102 then.
He also wakes up every morning and exercises and spends his time when he's not “going to the doctor, getting the groceries or having parties” working on his hobby, wood carving.
Knee's work ethic was honed early in life, when he picked up a job after his father was forced out of a position at Durgin Silver Shop during the Depression. He had also landed a scholarship to New Hampton Prep, where he joined the baseball team, but his career on the diamond and his enrollment in the school came to a halt because of an age-old rivalry.
“I played two games at third base for them until someone's father came out on the field and said, 'He's working a job, he can't play here,' ” Knee said. “The guy's son was going to Tilton, which was big rivals with New Hampton.”
Born near White Park and the oldest of five boys and a girl, Knee wasn't about to leave his home (he was also in the last Concord High School class to graduate in February, in 1934). So he started his windy career path, including a stint on the railway service that ran daily from Boston to Montreal. After his time in the service, he became a letter carrier and worked for the Post Office for 27 years.
His life outside of work was hardly mundane. When he was 16, his uncle owned a sled dog team but was too old to drive it any longer, so Knee did all the driving. That led him to race in New Hampshire, Maine and Canada, and paved the way for him to compete against Leonhard Seppala, who became famous for driving a team almost 700 miles through brutal winter conditions to deliver diphtheria serum to the town of Nome, Alaska, which was dealing with an epidemic.
He later rubbed elbows on the golf course with Musial and Rooney, the latter of whom made for an interesting partner.
“He said he was an 8 handicapper, but it was more like 28,” Knee joked. “He would come out on the course looking sharp as anything, but before long his shirttails would be hanging out and his socks would be falling down.”
Beaver Meadow has been home to Knee for many years, including the last 22 with Edie. He had met Edie through her first husband, and when he called her up once upon a time to find out if any homes were available in the complex, where she lived, she said the one next door was available.
He came up and purchased it the same day.
Years later, after each of their spouses had passed away, the two were married, with Ron first moving from his own home to Edie's and the couple later moving to a third home at Beaver Meadow together.
Knee has no plans on leaving any time soon, either – aside from the upcoming annual winter trip to Florida in October. After all, he's still got groceries to pick up and parties to attend. And whatever it is he's doing, it's working.
“Every time I go to the doctor, he'll ask if I smoke, and I'll say I used to smoke cigars,” Knee said. “And then he'll ask if I drink, and I say, 'Of course I drink, I have my vodka tonic with dinner every night.' And he says, 'Well, you better keep it up.' “
