Source from http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/article_c1315307-1c67-5088-b042-d6387c94ef94.html
I like to post this type of news of long life because it is very encouraging. I need to store it in my blog so that I can always have it with me. Once in awhile I will come back to read it. It might help me to think positively.
The numbers are in for Provo resident Marc Ricks. On Wednesday, he'll celebrate his 99th birthday on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year of the 21st century -- that's 99 on 9/9/09. (If only he'd been born 10 years earlier.)
• LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE HIS AGE, Marc has gotten a little hard of hearing, and he forgets things. "My memory is not getting better at this point," he said. He doesn't worry about that too much, however. The important stuff is all recorded in his personal history, "An Autobiography of a Family Doctor."
Marc wrote the story of his life longhand, on yellow legal pads. His daughter-in-law, Shirley Ricks, typed it all up, and the family printed a number of copies in 1988. If you ask Marc about something in his past that he doesn't remember, he knows where he can go to revisit those events. Quite frequently, in fact, he does -- Shirley Ricks, 58, said that Marc reads a little bit from "An Autobiography" every day.
For example, Marc might not be able to tell you, if you asked, that his parents named him "Marcellus" at birth (he was the second of nine children) because that was the middle name of his mother's brother, but the details are in his book on page 16.
A former family practice physician, Marc didn't limit himself to a single field of study. Before attending medical school, he earned both a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in chemistry. And even after starting to work in medicine, he kept himself open to other interests: in 1958, he secured a patent for a car alarm.
"He has quite a fertile and inventive mind," said Stephen Ricks, Marc's son and Shirley's husband. Actually, Stephen Ricks said, Marc decided at a young age that he wanted to earn a living by applying his brains instead of his brawn.
As a young man, Marc thought about becoming a carpenter, Stephen Ricks said, and decided to work on a farm to see if he was cut out for hard labor. "At the end of six months," Stephen Ricks said, "he decided under no circumstances would he work with his hands."
Marc lives with Stephen and his wife -- who both work for Brigham Young University -- at their home in Provo's Indian Hills neighborhood. (After his wife, Jane, died in 2005, at age 89, the family sold Marc's home on Provo's Cedar Avenue.) He doesn't get out much.
Stephen Ricks, 57, said that his father used to enjoy walking around Provo. Marc said that he doesn't exercise anymore, however, because he's afraid he might take a fall and injure himself. Instead, he reads the newspaper, occasionally watches television, and sometimes sits at the window to watch the world go by.
He also likes to sleep late. "I'm making up for all of the years I didn't get enough sleep" as a younger man, Marc said.
When he does get out of the house, Shirley Ricks said, it's for a specific purpose. "He gets his hair cut, he gets his toenails trimmed and he gets his ears checked," she said. And he attends church meetings every Sunday with his ward, or congregation, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shirley Ricks said that Marc attends all three hours of services, even though he often doesn't hear much of what's being said.
Actually, there's one other place he likes to go. Robert Ricks, Stephen and Shirley's oldest son, said that he remembers going out to eat with his grandparents at his grandfather's favorite restaurant: Chuck-A-Rama Buffet. It's still a family favorite. "I have to be careful that I don't overeat," Marc said, adding that he always saves room for ice cream.
Robert Ricks, 31, said that he also remembers playing the tile game Rummikub with his grandparents. "When we were really little, we'd be on a team," he said. "After we'd get to be about 9 or 10, we could hold our own."
Because Grandpa Marc was a doctor, Robert Ricks said, all of the Ricks children were occasionally treated for various minor ailments by their grandfather. The remedy of choice, Robert Ricks said, was almost always the antibiotic Erythromycin. "He would crush it up and put it in a spoonful of honey," Robert Ricks said, "but it still tasted bad."
Marc and Jane Ricks had five children. There are now 28 grandchildren, 46 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
Eagle Scout, French missionary, inveterate Oreo eater
As a boy growing up in Idaho and California, Marc gained a love of fishing and a love of the Boy Scouts of America. He earned 44 merit badges, his Eagle Scout award and the bronze, silver, gold and combination Eagle palms. Later he was honored with the Silver Beaver, a lifetime recognition given to adults who have distinguished themselves by longtime leadership service in Scouting over many years.
After finishing high school, Marc served an LDS Church proselytizing mission to France and Switzerland -- he still mixes the occasional French phrase into his conversation.
Returning home shortly after the onset of the Great Depression, Marc found a good job with a laundry service, but eventually left that position so he could study agricultural chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Marc worked as an agricultural chemist after finishing his college studies, but talking with Jane, whom he married in October 1936, about the importance of helping others made him change his mind again. "My wife thought maybe we could make a bigger contribution in the medical field," he said.
The U.S. Army helped to train him, and Marc was stationed at a hospital in San Francisco while serving out his commission. After entering family practice medicine, he saw as many as 30 patients a day, and even made house calls, something he looks back on philosophically: "They can't all come to the office when they're sick," Marc said.
Stephen Ricks said that his father has always been healthy, but Marc doesn't make too much out of the fact that he's lived so long. It's "because I haven't died," he said. Shirley Ricks said that it's probably not because of what he eats. "If I left him alone, he would live on milk and Oreos," she said. "He drinks milk like it's going out of style and eats a sleeve of Oreos a day."
Maybe he'd work in the occasional trip to Chuck-A-Rama as well; that's where the family will be eating on his birthday. Probably on his 100th birthday, too, if he makes it that far.
These days, Marc doesn't plan ahead. "When you get to this point," he said, "you're thankful for the blessings you've had, but not too worried about the future, if you take care of yourself and do what you're supposed to do.
"In other words, do what is right."
Posted in Lifestyles on Sunday, September 6, 2009 12:10 am Updated: 11:41 am. | Tags: Seniors,
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