Photo courtesy of Minot Daily News World War II veteran Ray Curtis of Minot, North Dakota, turned 108 on Tuesday. He is one of the oldest living World War II veterans in the nation.

MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA — Ray Curtis was born on Feb. 11, 1917, about two months before the United States entered World War I and a year before what became known as the Spanish Flu ravaged the nation. Automobiles had not yet become common in the states, and air travel was in its infancy. The Great Depression was still more than a decade away.

Curtis grew up in a farming family and, like many others at the time, enlisted in the U.S. Army following high school. He served for five years and actually was preparing to finish his military service as an officer just prior to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. That changed his plans, with Curtis serving stateside and then spending about a year in Germany. 

It’s fascinating to imagine the changes Curtis has witnessed over his 108 years, a milestone he celebrated Tuesday in Minot, North Dakota. Space travel; self-driving cars; computers; computers that fit into your pocket; and so, so much more. Family and friends gathered Tuesday in Minot to help him mark his birthday, a milestone that now sees him as one of the nation’s oldest living World War II veterans.

Two of Curtis’ daughters — Teresa Glaspey of Portal, North Dakota and Judy Antrim of Laporte, Indiana — helped him celebrate in person. He has three other daughters — Judy’s twin, Julie Antrim, also of Laporte, Connie Toffle of Morgantown, West Virginia, and Becky Gray of Alexandria, Minnesota — along with 10 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.  

Curtis has attributed his health and longevity to keeping active. At the Minot Lodge Senior Living facility where he lives he plays cards, including leading the card games, plays bingo, takes part in exercise class and rides the stationary bike in the exercise room besides walking every day.

He used to lead the exercise classes if no one was available to lead them. He continues to be very independent.

“He really believes in exercise and staying active,” Teresa Glaspey said.

Danielle Alsadon, executive director of Minot Lodge Senior Living, said Curtis’ dedication to keeping active and exercising has inspired her.

The family also said Curtis keeps in touch with his community and the world as a longtime subscriber and reader of the Minot (North Dakota) Daily News.

“He’s always been a big reader throughout his life,” Glaspey said. “As long as I can remember he read the Minot Daily News.”

Originally from Columbus, North Dakota, Curtis was born Feb. 11, 1917, at the Portal hospital. In a February 2021 interview, Curtis said, “I imagine it was the doctor’s house but they called it a hospital.”

He moved with his family to Minot in 1927 and graduated from Minot High School (now Central Middle School) in 1935.

After graduating from high school, he farmed with his dad and brother until enlisting in the U.S. Army.

“He was in the Army for five years. He enlisted and he was an officer. He spent some time in the United States and then he was overseas for a while,” Glaspey said.

For his first two months in the Army he worked as a clerk-typist in Minot.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, he had just a short time left in the Army but the attack changed those plans. He and his then girlfriend, Ellen, married in Reno, Nevada, and he was sent from San Francisco to Texas. He and his wife were together for a few months after their marriage and then she went to Minot to stay with his parents until he was discharged from the Army in December 1945.

He has said he was in the states about four years and in Germany about 10 months.

Curtis moved up to the rank of sergeant and then went to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. While in the Army he served as a communications officer, an aircraft automatic weapons unit commander and, when he went overseas, as an infantry unit commander.

After his discharge from the Army, Curtis farmed the family farm in the Columbus area. He and Ellen retired in 1983 and moved to Minot. Ellen died Dec. 24, 2014. Curtis moved to the assisted living facility a number of years ago.

Even today, he remains active and attributes that to his 108 years.

“I exercise everyday. I’ve been physically active all my life,” he said.