Another Area Resident, Bob Rorvig, Joins Century Club

A Prairie Ridge resident rang in the New Year with a birthday. Robert "Bob" Rorvig celebrated 100 years of life last week, while friends and family gathered to wish him well.

Rorvig explained that he was born in Pelican Rapids, Minn., on Jan. 2, 1914. His parents homesteaded this area when he was just 2 years old and he was raised just south of Richland. Rorvig went to school in his neighborhood but went to Opheim for high school. When he graduated, he went on to college and got his degree in socioeconomics in 1939.

After graduating, he became an extension agent. It was then, he said, he had to buy his first car for his job. He remembers buying a Chevy that he thought was new, but it turned out it wasn't in as good of condition as he was told. He remembers trading his Chevy in for a Ford.

He lived in Culbertson. He eventually met a teacher there who caught his eye, and Eunice became his wife on Dec. 20, 1941. Rorvig said that they didn't know for sure if they'd continue with wedding plans after Pearl Harbor suffered a major attack and the United States faced war. They decided to go forward with the wedding.

The two moved to Valley County, where he became an extension agent until 1946. Rorvig decided to go into farming full time. He was a wheat farmer and lived just north of Nashua, starting in 1958. He said he loved farming and had no problem continuing the job until he retired in 1975. One of the wonders that Rorvig said he sees in today's agriculture is the use of computers in farming equipment and the comparative ease that farmers now have to get the job done.

"Computers changed everything," Rorvig said. "So many things have changed."

After retiring, Eunice had plans for travel with Bob. The two took trips to Europe and Southeast Asia, and Bob said that they tried to go somewhere every year. The two were married for 64 years until she passed in 2006.

"We had the best of four lives," Rorvig said.

Rorvig said they enjoyed time in the outdoors as well. He liked to hunt, fish and boat in the Fort Peck area. He never seemed to catch a lot of fish, but it never stopped him from going.

When asked if he expected to live to be 100 years old, he chuckled a little. He said that you just live day to day. He's happy to have a brain that still works and that his health has been fairly good.

"If you get to 100 that's fine," Rorvig said. "Up until I was 95, I was still a young man."

Rorvig is related to Bernice Herman, who just turned 100-years old in December. Perhaps their family has good genes.

Rorvig has two sons, Ronald and Glenn, who took over the family farm when he retired.