Typically, Grove can be found collecting food from local stores and restaurants or standing behind a donations table at the Altoona Sam’s Club to help the Portage elderly and veteran communities.

As the veterans coordinator for the Laurel Highlands Historical Village, he believes that being respectful of others in the community is important.

Grove’s son, Robert Grove, said that his father’s packed calendar makes him “hard to find,” noting that his days fill up fast.

“My grandson said, ‘Pap, you got a full time job,’ and I said, ‘I do?'” William Grove joked.

William Grove of Portage goes through the groceries that he’s collected and stored in his basement. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Despite Grove’s busy schedule, he does not plan to stop volunteering anytime soon.

His granddaughter, Denise Ott, believes he will never stop giving back to his community, saying, “he will be busy until the day he dies.”

‘Country boy’

Born on March 4, 1930, Grove is the eldest of four boys who grew up in a farmhouse in Haitch, a small town that no longer exists in Huntingdon.

Grove was known as a “country boy” while attending Huntingdon High School. Although he was never picked on by the “city boys,” he carried around a pocket knife in spite of the school’s policy.

“My homeroom teacher used to borrow it to clean his fingernails,” Grove said.

Poverty drove Grove to join the National Guard when he was 19 years old, saying that the monthly meetings gave him “a little spending money to help the family out.”

Everything changed for Grove when the Korean War began and he landed in Korea on Jan. 1, 1951. Especially since his sweetheart, Dorothy (Ryan) Grove, was halfway across the world at her parents’ home in Portage.

Grove wrote to her while he was stationed in Korea, and when he returned to Portage over a year later, they got married, built a home and started a family.

To pay the bills, Grove worked as a lumberjack for 42 years at Chappell S Lumber Corporation.

“The guy who worked in the woods quit,” said Grove, who originally was a bookkeeper for the company. “They needed someone to cut timber. Guess who they picked.”

Over the years, the couple had four children, 11 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, their youngest just over 1 year old.

Robert Grove said that his father began to spread his wings a few years ago following his mother Dorothy’s death in 2018.

“She’s Irish, 100%. I’m German, 100%,” William Grove said. “So, she just didn’t like to dance. Ladies are always the boss, so that’s the way it was.”

In the Portage community, Grove holds the title of the town’s “dancing veteran” since he regularly attends local VFWs to “bust a move.”

Although he enjoys doing the jitter-bug to 1950s music, he is open to learning new dance moves from the 2020s.

“I just watch the young ones, and then I just copy them,” said Grove, showing off his dance moves in his living room by jumping up and down and touching his knees.

He has a smiling face many locals like to see while watching him on the dance floor, resulting in lasting friendships at the end of the night.

“If you don’t have friends when you get there, you always do when you leave,” Grove said. “You meet so many strangers and you become friends, It’s so simple.”

Community is key

Like clockwork, Grove picks up donated groceries from various local stores every two weeks and takes them to the Laurel Highlands Historical Village warehouse in Vinco.

“He’s willing to give back on many levels,” said Ronald Shawley, the executive director of Laurel Highlands Historical Village. “He basically volunteers every day.”

Grove did not just recently start giving back to communities. While serving in Korea, Grove remembered seeing girls standing outside of their tents begging soldiers for food. So on Thanksgiving day, he decided to give back.

“I got the biggest drumstick, so when I went out, I picked the youngest girl and put it in her container,” Grove said.

Whether it be in Korea or Pennsylvania, Grove never lost his passion for giving back to the community.

He recalled seeing an ad five years ago for the Laurel Highlands Historical Village. At the time, the organization was collecting food for local veterans at the Cambria County Fair. Grove said he had never heard of the organization before seeing the ad.

Later that day, he went to Stager’s and spent $50 on canned goods and pasta boxes that “filled the trunk of his car,” he said.

“When I opened my trunk, the one volunteer said, ‘which bag?’ and I said, ‘well, all of them,'” Grove said with a laugh.

After months of leaving non-perishable foods at various drop-off locations, Grove and Shawley figured that he would be a better help to the Historical Village by transporting donations from stores and restaurants to the warehouse.

“You’re not going to find an individual at this age that is willing to help as much as he does,” Shawley said. “I have been having trouble finding people to help out, let alone someone his age.”

Grove also helps local veterans by taking them fishing with the Historical Village at Prince Gallitzin State Park.

Being a veteran himself, Grove doesn’t think “people really respect the vets like they should be respected.”

Aside from collecting food and taking veterans fishing, Grove also participates in the Conemaugh Regional hospice grief support group and the UPMC Altoona bereavement support group to cope with his late wife’s death.

Since he is the oldest person in the group, he noted that many members look to him as a “father figure,” making others feel comfortable enough to express their feelings during the grief meetings.

No matter if Grove is transporting donations or participating in grief support groups, he carries a positive energy with him at all times.

“He is someone we all look up to and someone we want to be like,” his granddaughter Ott said.

Leaving a legacy

Three meals a day and seven hours of sleep each night is Grove’s secret to longevity.

“That’s it,” Grove said, keeping his secret simple.

He is not a picky eater — Grove said that if the food looks good, then he’ll eat it.

Even the McDonald’s in Portage knows his regular order of a bacon cheese burger, and they’ll have it ready for him when he stops inside.

While eating in the popular fast-food restaurant, Grove has made fast-friends, including a woman who lost her veteran husband.

“She said, ‘oh boy, I’m glad I met you,'” Grove said. “I convinced her that she should come to Conemaugh Hospice meetings.”

Grove explained that he wants to leave a joyous legacy on the Portage community, using the poem “Afterglow,” written by Helen Lowrie Marshall, for inspiration.

The poem reads, “I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done / I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways / Of happy times and laughing times and bright sunny days.”

Although Grove is in his mid-90s, he is usually seen out and about, whether it be in the Historical Village’s warehouse or on the dance floor. Still, he does not let his age hold him back from giving back to his community.

“He has more energy than many people half his age,” Shawley said.

On Saturday, Grove was awarded the Ambassador of Peace medal from the Republic of Korea, commemorating his service in the Korean war. To celebrate, the Portage community threw him a surprise party at the Portage American Legion.