97-year-old Manheim Twp. resident retires after 66 years of service to Murry Communities

How does a man wind up for j until he is 97 years old?

"Well, I think it's thanks to the man above, and also staying busy," said Marvin Harnish , who celebrated his retirement at a party at Crossgates Golf C lub in Millersville

Nearly 20 former co-workers and family members came to celebrate friend and co-worker a statistical in human form. Just .01% of the ma le population in America is Harnish's age, according to

And while Harnish worked for -based construction and company Murry Communities for 66 years, the average person stays at the same company for 4.1 years, according to a 2022 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Despite being closer to a century old than not, the retirement came not from any one event, but simply Harnish feeling like it was time. For the past five years, Harnish has with mowing the grass at various Murry properties , including the 150-acre Stony Battery Corporate Center in West Hempfield ownship. At the end of last year, Harnish decided it was finally quitting time.

"Marv told me, 'Oh, I was bouncing around on the tractor too much," said Ed LeFevre, 83, with a laugh. LeFevre worked with Harnish from 1976 to 1988 before moving to a different construction company.

READ: Annual Santa Gathering brings Clauses together for fun and learning before the yuletide season

Harnish worked full time, five to six days a week, from 1957 to 1992, when he transitioned to being a part of the Crossgates Gol lawn care team on a part-time basis that still had him working days of the week.

"I was never much for hobbies," Harnish . " I've got a bad knee, but it could it be worse. "

Life of service Harnish was born in December of 1926 in Willow Street.

Much of Harnish's early life revolved around his family's farm, tobacco, and barley. When he wasn't farming, he was attending Lancaster Church of the Brethren, whose services he attending all these decades later. He was an usher at the church, and his wife Betty was a Sunday school teacher. They married in 1948 and celebrate their 60 wedding anniversary in 2008 before Betty died later the same year at the age of rnish's includes four children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

At 30 years old, Harnish moved from the family farm to Millersville and began working at William

Harnish has n living independently at Brethren Village Retirement Community since

"The year that he was going to turn 90, he said, 'I f my name comes up for a first-floor apartment, I'd better take it, " said Renea Snyder. "He's very active there, he's in a pool league and plays pinochle and shuffleboard almost every day."

READ: 'A little more aware': Lymphoma cancer has forever changed an Upper Leacock Township girl and her family

Harnish showed few signs of his nonagenarian status at his retirement party trays of hot food and a cake bearing his name , all without a walker or cane.

At one point, Harnish addressed the group with a work sto ry that, in many ways, defines his decades of cool headedness

At some point in the early in Eden Township when he suddenly passed out. At the same moment nearby, a neighbor cutting down trees on his property ran out of saw Harnish in the backhoe.

After being rushed to the hospital in a state of partial consciousness , doctor sure what the problem was until a nurse heard Harnish meekly say the word ." Doctors then addressed his severe allergic reaction from bee stings rest, he was back at work like nothing had happened. The assembled crowd chuckled at the details in the same way one might enjoy a movi they' seen dozens of times.

"I'm not sure I've personally seen anyone live this long, much less work this long," said Russ Weidman, who has worked at Murry for five decades , much of the time alongside Harnish.

He's a good guy , he never flew off the handle . Near the end when he was retiring, we were mowing grass together. Just last year he said, 'Y I think it's time to go.

"It's OK getting old" Bill Murry, current president of Murry Communities and grandson of founder William Murry, agrees about unflappability, and he would know, as Murry has known Harnish since he was s old. Harnis h worked long enough to work for Bill's father, and then for Bill himself.

"I would hitch a ride with my grandfather to every job site because I wasn't in school yet," explains Murry, 71. "Marv is great. There's some situations, just like every business, where you have to be the boss, but I never looked at Marv (as a subordinate) that way, because I've known him for so long."

Outside of a strong belief in God and the love of his family, Harnish doesn't point to any one reason as to why he has lived and worked for so long