08/13/2026
Another centurion joined our SRB Centurion Club this past Tuesday!
Karl Klingelhofer celebrated his 100th birthday among his friends and family at Silvergate Rancho Bernardo. Karl enjoyed delicious chocolate martinis, German chocolate cake, and music provided by our talented resident, Mary Leitner.
Karl is walking history, and his family shared just a fraction of what he experienced with all of us. He grew up in a time before electricity and running water. When his family needed milk for the day, he went out in the dark to milk their cow! After graduating high school, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a cadet at age 18 and learned to fly. After the war, he studied agricultural engineering and later worked for the Department of Agricultural Soil Conservation Service, which was the beginning of a 30-year career with the Federal Government. Later, he became State Engineer for the SCS in Massachusetts, focusing on water resources, designing and overseeing the construction of numerous dams across the state. He was appointed the Assistant Director of Water Resources in Washington, D.C. In his retirement, Karl became a world traveler and documented every country and state he had been to on the maps he framed on his wall. At age 86, he got his sport pilot's license and purchased his own plane, an Aircoupe, naming it "The Spirit of '45".
Happy 100th Birthday, Karl! We hope you had a wonderful day. We loved sharing it with you!
