The world’s oldest practicing doctor says retirement is ‘the enemy’ of longevity.
Here are his 3 tips for living a long and happy life
Story by Bethan Moorcraft
Howard Tucker (born July 10, 1922) is an American neurologist who has been practicing medicine since 1947. In addition to becoming a lawyer and passing the Ohio
Bar Examination at age 67 in 1989, Tucker is recognized by Guinness World Records
as the current oldest practicing doctor.[1][2]
Early life and education
Howard Tucker was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tucker decided to pursue a career in medicine while attending Cleveland Heights High School. After graduating high school in 1940, Tucker attended Ohio State University for his undergraduate studies and Ohio State University College of Medicine for his Doctor
of Medicine degree.[3] Tucker enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II and would later serve as Chief of Neurology for the Atlantic Fleet during the Korean War.[4]
Medical career
Tucker completed his residency at the Cleveland Clinic and training at the Neurological Institute of New York before returning to Cleveland, where he would practice neurology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Hillcrest Hospital for over seven decades. While still practicing neurology, Tucker attended Cleveland State University Cleveland–Marshall College of Law where he received his Juris Doctor degree and passed the Ohio Bar Examination at age 67 in 1989.[3][5]
In 1960, Tucker was credited with solving a medical case involving two young girls who would go in and out of coma. Tucker determined the cause of the comas to be barbiturate poisoning.[6]
Tucker teaches medical residents at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and pursues work as an expert witness for various medical-legal cases.[7] In 2021, Tucker was recognized as the oldest practicing doctor by Guinness World Records.[7]
Personal life
In 1957, Tucker married Sara “Sue” Siegel.
As of 2022, 88-year-old Siegel continues to practice medicine as a psychoanalyst.
The couple have four children and ten grandchildren.[4]
What’s Next? Movie on Instagram: “Currently in production, WHAT’S NEXT?
is a feature documentary on Guinness World Records’ “Oldest Practicing Doctor.”
currently in production and is being produced by Tucker’s grandson, Austin
Tucker, and directed and produced by Taylor Taglianetti.[1]
In April 2023, he contributed a piece to CNBC on five important pieces of life advice: staying active and not spending his days retired, staying in shape, not smoking, not restricting himself to a narrow number of activities, and not letting the vast knowledge
and changes he’s seen be wasted.
A doctor in Cleveland is officially the world’s oldest practicing physician.
100-year-old neurologist still practicing, has been awarded the Guinness World Record
for being the oldest doctor who is still in practice. A 100-year-old Ohio man who holds
the Guinness World Record for being the oldest practicing doctor, says that he has no immediate plans to retire. In February 2021, when he was 98 years and 231 days old,
Dr. Howard Tucker of Cleveland received initial recognition as the oldest practicing physician in the world.
The doctor still continues to stand by his word of having no intentions to retire,
and his wife Sue mirrors his work ethic — who is 89, is still a practicing psychoanalyst.
The physician shares that just after reaching his 100th birthday in July, he contracted COVID-19. Despite this, he continued to instruct his residents through Zoom while recovering.
After reading an obituary for a barber who was listed as one of the oldest people in the world, Howard was motivated to submit an application for the title of oldest practising doctor. Given that they were of a similar age, Howard understood that he could shatter records by himself. Austin, his grandson, assisted him in submitting a formal application to Guinness World Records. When the record was verified, his loved ones were ecstatic.
While speaking to Guinness World Records, he said, “I regard this Guinness World Records title as a singular honor and look upon it as another achievement in a long, satisfying and happy life.”
He further added, “”I take the same approach to each day as I did back in 1947 when
I was just starting out. I continue to learn a lot each day from my colleagues and even
my residents that I teach.”
Here is a photo of Dr. Howard Tucker now and when he was younger:
Dr. Howard Tucker, an old one from 1947 and the world’s
oldest doctor in a recent pic (R) @Guinness World Records.
100-year-old neurologist still practicing medicine (news5cleveland.com)
The world’s oldest practicing doctor knows a thing or two about
how to live a long and happy life — but you might not like everything he has to say.
For Cleveland-born Dr. Howard Tucker — who just turned 101 on July 10, 2023 —
a key secret to his longevity is meaningful work.
Tucker received his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1947 and he has practiced neurology for 75 years — eventually earning the Guinness World Records title of the world’s oldest practicing physician.
The chipper centenarian has lived a remarkable life, sharing many happy years with his wife Sara (who still practices psychoanalysis and psychiatry at age 89), his four children and 10 grandchildren.
While Tucker says “good genes and a bit of luck” can help to extend your life,
he also follows a few simple lifestyle rules that boost his health and happiness.
Delay your retirement (if you can)
After his record-breaking career, Tucker’s contrarian view on retirement might not surprise you. “I look upon retirement as the enemy of longevity,” he told TODAY shortly after his 100th birthday. “I think that to retire, one can face potential shriveling up and ending in a nursing home. It’s fun staying alive and working …
Every day I learn something new.”
Not even the COVID-19 pandemic could stop Tucker from practicing his trade.
He continued treating patients for five or six days a week — when his age would have classified him as high-risk.
The 100-year-old did eventually stop seeing patients in 2022, but he continued working twice a week teaching medical residents at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland.
While he’s acknowledged that some jobs are too physically or emotionally demanding to keep into old age, Tucker thinks you should consider delaying retirement if you enjoy your career and are still able to work.
“I’m going to caution (people): If they retire from their work, they should at least do something as a hobby, whether it be communal work or self-hobbies … you need a stimulus for the brain daily,” he said.
World’s Oldest Doctor Turns 100, Shares Health, Longevity Advice (today.com)
There can also be some financial benefits to delaying your retirement — even by just a few years. Only 24% of Americans nearing retirement age (60-67 years old) believe they have enough money saved to live out their golden years in comfort, the Schroders 2023 U.S. Retirement Survey revealed.
A few extra years of saving and strategizing with the help of a financial planner can
make all the difference and help to ease any money concerns you may have in later life.
Also, if you wait until age 70 to start claiming your Social Security benefits, you will get
a much bigger payout than if you claim at the earliest possible age.
Stay fit and healthy.
Tucker is a sprightly centenarian who likes to keep busy — both physically and mentally.
He’s never smoked, he has a healthy diet — thanks to his “excellent chef” of a wife, who includes greens with every meal — and he drinks alcohol in moderation, allowing himself the occasional martini.
To this day, Tucker loves to exercise.
“Swimming, jogging, hiking, and skiing well into my late-80s
has kept me strong and healthy,” he wrote in an article for CNBC.
In his 11th decade, while he’s “not quite as active as [he] once was,” Tucker still claims to go at least three miles on his treadmill “at a brisk pace” most days a week — with the help of Turner Classic Movies to overcome boredom.
He’s also taken up snowshoeing after his family banned him from skiing in his late 80s following an accident. Staying fit and healthy into your later years can come with its financial advantages.
For instance, you might be able to shop around and find cheaper health insurance
to cover unexpected health emergencies — which no one is immune to, even those
with lucky genes.
Learn something new every day
Upon receiving his Guinness World Record in 2021, Tucker said: “I would tell my teenage self to learn each day as if I were to live forever, and to live each day as if I were to die tomorrow.”
Tucker has practiced this philosophy for decades. To this day, he keeps on top of the latest advancements in neurology by studying and reading.
And he didn’t stop at medicine. He went to law school at night in his 60s and passed the Ohio Bar Exam at age 67 — while doing his normal day job as a doctor — simply because he was interested in the law.
More recently, this love of learning has seen Tucker getting help from one of his 10 grandchildren to understand new technology and apps.
“The whole world is full of computers and they live by computers.
If I want to stay in this world, I’m going to do it,” he told TODAY.
If you’re like Tucker and are keen to explore new opportunities in technology, you might want to check out online investing and money-saving tools that will put your money to work for you.
The world’s oldest practicing physician, neurologist, Howard Tucker,
with his grandson Austin Tucker and documentary filmmaker Taylor Taglianetti
World War II vet who is still working as a neurologist turns 100 years old (breatheful.com)
His fans can watch the mild-mannered doctor from Cleveland Heights throw a baseball, give dating advice to Leonardo DiCaprio, and try a burrito for the first time. And yes, you heard that right, he has fans, and millions of views on TikTok.
“We have people contacting us asking ‘Can we go meet Dr. Tucker?’ ‘I live in Ohio,
how can I meet him?’” said Taylor Taglianetti a documentary filmmaker from New York, who, together with Tucker’s grandson Austin Tucker is producing a film about Tucker’s
life entitled What’s Next?
It turns out, turning 100 makes you a little bit of a rock star.
On his 100th birthday this past July, Tucker received letters of congratulations from
five of the six living U.S. presidents and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
plus a personal serenade from country music legend Dolly Parton.
And the following day he threw out the first pitch at a Guardians baseball game. Taglianetti says they may organize some meet-and greets with Tucker and his many admirers so he can answer all their questions.
“It bewilders me. I just can’t understand it,” said Tucker about all the fuss. “People say to me, you’re doing pretty good for a hundred, and I say to myself how many 100-year-old people have they sampled? I don’t think I’ve ever met another 100-year-old person. I have only met myself.”
But beneath the genuine humility there is a hint of childish delight in the fanfare that has surrounded his centennial milestone. His intellect, and wit, are still intact and sharp as ever. And, as it turns out, applying for the Guinness World Record was sort of his idea.
“A man died, and the obit said he was a barber. He was in the Guinness Book of World Records. He was 98 years old and the oldest barber in practice in the world,” said Tucker. “And so that’s why I asked Austin if we should look into it.” Austin did. And after months of inquiries and a lengthy application process, they got the news.
“Right before his 99th birthday we got the call that he got the record,” the younger Tucker said. “And that was the wakeup call for me. It was an opportunity for me to really sit back and think: ‘Wow, I’ve never truly understood what my grandfather has seen over almost a century of being around, but also over seven decades of practicing medicine.’ ”
100-year-old Cleveland doctor still working | wkyc.com
That’s when Austin Tucker says he realized not everybody has grandparents in their
90s who still go to work, and also when he and Taglianetti, his former NYU classmate,
began to hatch a plan to tell his grandfather’s story.
At first, he says, he thought it would be something short – maybe a 10-minute profile.
Once they began interviewing him, they realized they wanted to make a full-length film.
As sharp as ever
This slender, grey-haired man is maybe 5 and a half feet tall, with a sharp mind and an even sharper wit. He quotes Winston Churchill and Dorothy Parker, and has thoughts on just about everything, having experienced, or read more than most. It seems immediately obvious that this is a man who not only refuses to retire, but has probably never spent an idle moment – physically or mentally – in his 100 plus years.
He still exercises two miles on the treadmill or stationary bike four times a week, reads the paper with his wife of 65 years over breakfast every morning, then puts on a bow tie and heads to the hospital where he still teaches neurology residents and sees patients. And when the occasion calls for it, he’s been known to pull an all-nighter to prepare a new medical lecture for his students.
His grandson says he was even sneaking out of the house to go to the hospital during
the height of COVID-19, 98 years old at the time, although the doctor remembers it differently.
“Well, I had to work,” he said. “I put on a mask. The hospital didn’t tell me to stay home. They said everyone should come to work. In medicine we have a responsibility.
If you take it seriously, you follow through.”
And as if medicine wasn’t enough, 40 years into his medical career, he earned a law degree while working full-time, passing the Ohio Bar Exam at the age of 67. These days, in his days off from the hospital, he also works on the side as an expert witness, reviewing medical cases — an intellectual challenge he says he loves.
“I get as much enjoyment out of reviewing records as I would if I were golfing. …
And it’s less expensive, too,” Tucker said with a chuckle.
What prompted him to go to law school? He read an obituary about a man who was supposedly the oldest man to have ever passed the Ohio bar exam He. was 62, he recounts.
“I think I beat him by 5 (years). I suppose I ought to call the Ohio State Bar Association and ask them,” he said, looking over at his grandson across the table.
A bit of luck and a life well lived.
“I guess we have to know,” his grandson replied.
There are some signs that Tucker is slowing down.
For example, he holds the handrail now when he climbs the stairs.
He no longer does the NordicTrack anymore because he says his balance is off, and
he only walks two miles on the treadmill at a time instead of the previous three to four.
He’s also given up downhill skiing in favor of snowshoeing at the behest of his family.
They also would prefer he give up driving, but Tucker says he’s not ready to hand over
the keys to the BMW he bought at age 94 yet. “I can’t lose my independence,” he said.
He may also be the luckiest man alive. This month he was getting rabies shots after being bitten by a bat, and undergoing physical therapy after taking a tumble down a flight of stairs that necessitated spinal fusion surgery.
A decade earlier in his 80s he walked away from a skiing accident in Colorado that fractured the second cervical vertebrae – the same vertebrae he points out that killed Sonny Bono and paralyzed Christopher Reeve. And in his 70s he was airlifted of a mountaintop in the Alps in a basket suspended from a helicopter, after he slipped
and broke his kneecap while hiking with his wife.
And yet, he never lost his sense of humor. When the medic asked if he would
like a tranquilizer to calm his nerves, he recalls asking, “Will it cushion the fall?”
The joke he recalls was lost in translation.
A living legacy: 75 years in medicine
There are not a lot of working doctors that can see a patient and say
“Wow, I haven’t seen that in 50 years,” but Howard Tucker is one of them.
The neurologist earned his degree in medicine from Ohio State University 75 years ago, and was among the first Jewish members of the medical faculty at Columbia University
in New York. He later returned to Ohio to join the faculty of what was then known as Western Reserve University and worked for over a decade at the Cleveland Clinic.
As a doctor he has lived through the polio epidemic, the last outbreak of smallpox, the discovery of DNA and the rise of modern genetics. And he has seen advances in technology he could once never have dreamed up.
Twice a week you can still find Dr. Tucker at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. And if by chance you are his patient, he’s likely to spend some extra time with you. While he says he appreciates the advances technology has made in medicine, he believes it shouldn’t come at the expense of the doctor listening to the patient.
“I am always running behind,” he says. “The patient in front of me is the important one.”
Medicine back in the early days was much more cerebral, he says.
“We didn’t have CAT scans. We didn’t have MRIs.
We had our brains. … We had to think through a problem – so it was fun in those days.”
Tucker says he never followed a strict diet or ran marathons.
He came home every night for dinner and to spend time with his four children, and then went back to work. He and his wife had a tradition of drinking martinis on Friday nights. The secret to his longevity he says is doing a little bit of everything- but not too much. “Everything in moderation,” he said.
So what’s next?
“Oh, I expect I’ll keep working until it’s over with,” he says, speaking of his eventual death with the clinical confidence of a physician who has fully embraced the one thing he knows medicine can’t cure. “You know, life,” he says, “is a fatal disease, it does eventually end.” The World’s ‘Oldest Practicing Doctor’ Shares How He Keeps His Brain Sharp as a 101-Year-Old Neurologist (msn.com)
What’s Next is in its final phase of production.
To learn more about the film, click here.
Opinion | How Do You Feel About a 100-Year-Old Doctor? (nytimes.com)
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