This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
PINE GROVE MILLS — Not many people can say they’ve lived through the Great Depression, fought in World War II, helped run a garage with their brothers, worked a lifetime at Penn State, raised a family and still made it to their 100th birthday with a hot dog in one hand and a wisecrack in the other.
But Robert “Pete” Lauck isn’t most people.
Born on Aug. 1, 1925, to George William Lauck Sr. and Olive Elnora Tanyer Lauck, Pete entered the world in a different time, but his values, wit and work ethic have remained steady through it all.
Last weekend, family, friends and neighbors packed the Pine Grove Mills VFW Post 5825 for an open house in his honor. There were cupcakes, stories, laughter and, of course, Pete’s favorite: a good old-fashioned hot dog bar.
Growing up in Centre County with six siblings, Pete’s early life was rich with tradition, hard work and a fair amount of mush ball. He attended first grade at the old Academy schoolhouse and later became part of the first class at the newly built Ferguson Township Consolidated School. He walked home for lunch, came back in time to play ball and followed the Lauck family rule: don’t march in the Memorial Day parade? No new shoes.
“If the Lauck kids didn’t march in the Memorial Day parade, they didn’t get new shoes,” Lauck stated. “We got white ones on Memorial Day, dyed them for school and put cardboard in them when the soles wore out.”
Pete’s life changed in November 1943 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II. After 17 weeks of basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he shipped off to England aboard the Dominion Monarch and landed in Europe just days after D-Day. As a technician fifth grade in Battery A of the 190th Field Artillery Battalion, Pete was a Survey and Instrument Man 228. He used scopes and maps to help aim the 155mm guns.
Lauck earned the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with five bronze stars, a Good Conduct Medal, a World War II Victory Medal, an Honorable Service Lapel Button WWII and a Marksman Badge with Carbine Bar.
Pete came home in 1946 decorated and with the kind of stories only found in that “Greatest Generation.”
After the war, Pete joined his father and brothers at Lauck’s Garage, where work was steady and the humor never quit.
“If you had nothing else to do,” his father would say, “you could wax the gas pumps.”
Pete later took a position at Penn State’s Old Main in 1950, managing research funding and salary increases, though it seems he spent just as much time telling stories about co-workers as he did crunching numbers.
“Pete’s help and friendship extended beyond the workplace,” longtime friend and colleague Larry Pruss recalled. “Without Pete, we wouldn’t have found our farm. When we moved in, he gave me all his tools and to this day, I still think about Pete at least once a week, because I still use his tools.”
In July 1951, Pete married the love of his life, Dorothy Lou Rishel, after a blind date orchestrated by friends. Dot was watching her toddler play in the creek when Pete sat beside her and started to join in.
“It was a stroke of luck that my friends, Shirley Stanton and Jim Kline decided to play cupid and set me up on a blind date, convincing me to go with them for the afternoon,” she said.
“They took me to the Lauck’s camp that afternoon to meet a thin, handsome, quiet gentleman named Pete. As I watched my toddler splash in the creek by the camp, Pete came out and sat with us and played with us for a couple of hours and our destiny was sealed.”
They honeymooned in Cape May, fishing with Pete’s parents and never looked back. Together, they raised four daughters: Linda, Cynthia, Kathleen and Kimberly, and built a legacy that now includes 10 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Pete served as treasurer for the Pine Grove Mills Board of Supervisors and held the role of adjutant for VFW Post 5825. For three decades, he volunteered at the Centre Community Hospital snack bar. Ever the jokester, Pete would say, “It’s my day to do vasectomies,” before heading in for a shift.
Pete has read the Bible cover to cover twice and is dedicated to attending Sunday church services.
Despite witnessing a century of change, Pete says two things never wavered: his faith and clean living.
For his daughters, the milestone is both incredible and deeply personal.
“We are blessed every day to have him with us,” they said.
So what do you get the man who’s seen a hundred years? You give him a room full of laughter, a lifetime of love surrounded by family and friends and maybe a second hot dog.
