Local man looking to bridge century mark, become Life Master
McCauley celebrates 100th birthday Friday
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An avid bridge player, a voracious reader, a ham radio operator, World War II veteran and father, Ed McCauley of Altoona turns 100 on Friday, and until recently, he ran a mile each morning.
This retired electrical engineer has accomplished a lot, but he feels he still has more to do -- such as improving his bridge game to reach a nationally recognized status, as a Life Master.
"I'm no expert," he said modestly, sitting at his kitchen table, which holds his smartphone, a Kindle and, on a nearby counter, sits the computer that he uses to play bridge against local and national players.
"I still have a desire to win," McCauley said. "It's like any card game, it's learning the probabilities of various hands. It's a good challenging game."
Hope Sheehan is a former president of the Altoona Duplicate Bridge Club in which McCauley plays.
"He's a very strong bridge player and a fierce competitor. He's wily and very determined. Bridge is very important to him," she said.
McCauley plays bridge online seven days a week, sometimes twice a day, often against players from all over the world and with robots, said his daughter Sheila Young. In competitive bridge, players earn and accumulate Master Points -- often for only a tenth of a point at a time -- in matches sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League.
Young of Ellicott City, Maryland, said her parents played bridge as a couple among friends -- games that didn't earn him points -- for years.
"When Dad moved back to Altoona in 2009 after Mom died," Young said, "he was 87 and had no Master Points because he and Mom had always played among friends. He now has 470! His goal is to achieve Life Master status. Imagine being 100 years old and still having aspirations!" Bridge players become Life Masters once they have 500 points.
McCauley's neighbor Larry Wills said McCauley remains very independent and still shovels his long driveway unless Wills gets to it first. And, he's reluctant to accept assistance with his large garden of tomatoes. The tomatoes are desired by his bridge-playing friends and his daughter's neighbors in Maryland for the ripe, red deliciousness.
"Ed's memory is very sharp on most things -- especially details about Penn State football games. He can recall all the players names and key plays all the way back."
An early riser, for years McCauley ran a mile daily at 4:30 a.m. in all kinds of weather, Young said. "His motto was "no matter what," and he was undeterred by the worst weather. Early on, he bought crampons so that he could walk up the driveway when it was icy and get to the road for his run."
Wills said McCauley does the daily sudoku puzzles and reads the newspaper before sharing it with him by 8 a.m.
Young said she introduced her father to sudoku and he immediately took to it. For the sudoku, McCauley only does the silver and gold level ones as he doesn't find the bronze level challenging.
"When I was a kid," Young said, "he taught me how to do cryptograms, but he does them in his head. I have never been able to do that!"
Young describes her father as "self-effacing" whose only infirmity is being hard of hearing.
McCauley taught himself to read, Young said.
"Dad skipped first grade and graduated at 17. In his own account to me one day he said: "I got kicked out of first grade after just a couple of weeks. The nun caught me reading Grimm's Fairy Tales while she was teaching the alphabet and sent me to second grade."
Reading continues to be an activity McCauley thoroughly enjoys, he said, although his tastes range from mysteries to biographies and the Revolutionary War. Instead of books, this retired engineer embraces technology and downloads his books to his Kindle -- for free, he points out from the Philadelphia Public Library. He rarely watches television, and when he does, it's Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.
While McCauley left Altoona as a 9-year-old when his father's search for steady employment took them to the Pittsburgh area. McCauley returned for several weeks each summer and helped his grandfather, Stephen Kirsch, farm nearly 60 acres.
The Kirsch family has lived on Red Hill for 120 years, Young said, noting she is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and encouraged her father to join Sons of the American Revolution.
After high school, McCauley returned and lived with his grandfather after his aunt Mary Grace Kirsch helped him obtain a scholarship to Penn State. McCauley was among the first students to attend the Altoona Undergraduate Center in the Webster Grade School building in downtown Altoona.
"Dad was a physics major at Penn State, but took on extra credits -- had to have the permission of the dean -- so that he could graduate in three years and serve in WWII. He was in the Signal Corps in the South Pacific during the war."
It was also Mary Grace who encouraged Mercy Hospital registered nurse Mary Fabian to write to the soldier.
"They fell in love through those letters and were married," Young said of her parents, who settled in Philadelphia. He spent most of his career as an engineer at RCA. He worked on communications for the moon landing and the Trident submarine.
After he retired, he tutored "countless" students in calculus and physics at the family's home in Delaware County, he said.
Through the years, he and his family returned to the Kirsch farm regularly, especially to attend Penn State football games.
Penn State memorabilia -- including a photo of the Penn State Blue Band spelling out his name on Beaver Stadium field -- decorates the family homestead inside and outside.
Wills said his neighbor is known for his tailgating spreads and developing a rapport with much younger fans because he enjoys playing tailgating games.
"Dad still has Penn State football season tickets, and if there were a Life Master for tailgating he would already have it," Young confirmed. "In the before times, he beat the kids at cornhole, beer pong and flip cup, and he was a decent stump player. I expect his pro moves will still be there when we go back to Beaver Stadium in the fall. He always calls the final game of each season 'the saddest day of the year.'"
When the pandemic eases and Penn Staters again fill the stadium stands, McCauley plans to attend.