ATLANTA — On Tuesday July 6, an Atlanta native and veteran turns 105.
Herbert Brimer is a marvel with over a century of Atlanta life.
“I had the telegram to deliver to the Ansley Hotel downtown, I asked the desk clerk, if I could take it to his room, I was surprised when he said yes. So, up I went,' Brimer told 11Alive's Jeff Hullinger.
104-year-old Atlanta native Herbert Alton Brimer said, recalling his Western Union assignment as a kid, which placed him in front of a Heavyweight Champion and American legend.
“I knocked on the door, and it opened, and there he was — Jack Dempsey I’ll never forget. Enormous. He tipped me a shiny quarter,” he said.
Herbert Brimer was born at a home on Haywood Street in 1916 in Atlanta.
"My father was a salesman for Coca Cola, I attended Murphy Jr. High and Tech Senior High, leaving in the 10th grade and going to work as a Western Union delivery boy,” Brimer said.
Brimer is the oldest living man in metro Atlanta who still able to share his memories and offer insight. He lives with his 75-year-old daughter in Canton.
Kathy Brimer Hester says her father has lived to 104 "because the Lord hasn't called him home."
"My first job was as a youngster delivering prescriptions for the East Atlanta Pharmacy," Brimer said.
That was in the 1920s. His memories of Atlanta are of a community long gone. As a boy, he and his brothers played in the giant sand and dirt pile during construction of the Fox Theatre at 660 Peachtree Street NE in 1928.
Hard depression times led families struggling to survive. He says he and his brother would sell newspapers at the Hurt Building at 50 Hurt Plaza.
Atlanta's oldest living man, Herbert Brimer, turns 105
During the summer in the 1920s, Brimer and his brothers would swim at the Grant Park Pool.
"The tradition of the time was for people to throw coins at us and they would land in the bottom of the pool and we would dive to the bottom, we had no pockets, so we would put all the pennies and nickels in our mouth and swim back up," he said.
Brimer served with "Roosevelt's Tree Army," the Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina.
He was Drafted in WWII, had duty in Fort McPherson, was sent to Florida to teach radar, then served decades with the US Army as a civilian worker in logistics assignments — including the Atlanta Army Depot — and spent years in Vietnam, Saigon and Berlin too.
Brimer raised three girls and was married for decades to Marie, who passed away two decades years ago. He retired in 1976 and lived in Young Harris playing golf and gardening.
Today, Brimer mostly listens to books on audio, focusing on fiction and politics.
"I've lived in a democracy for 104 years, I sure hate to see them mess it up,” he said.
He loves southern food, snacks for most of the day, and drinks alcohol in moderation.
His vision has faded but his mind is clear and sharp. Although his daughter says he really misses playing golf.
