At 100, Don Pellmann has broken 5 world records at the Senior Olympics, an event he started participating in after retiring in 1970. He also has 895 medals to his name, out of which only five are not gold. But these are not his only achievements.
Pellmann has also worked on NASA's Apollo program.
Pellmann worked for AC Electronics, a division of General Motors. The company produced few parts for the Apollo program's guidance and navigation systems.
"That was the highpoint of my career. It's amazing that we had such great engineering accomplishments such a long time ago. It was a minor part of the program, but a very important part. We had some of the finest mechanics and some of the finest machines available," Pellmann said describing his work as supervisor of AC Electronics' tool room and model shop in Oak Creek, Wis., where he oversaw the production of parts for accelerometers and gyroscopes, and often worked in co-operation with MIT reports Fox News.
Though Pellmann never met any of the astronauts of the mission, he still feels honoured to have contributed to such an important aspect of scientific development in the history of man. "It was an extraordinary thing - we still consider of it as a biggest engineering attainment in a story of a world," he explained, according to Economic World.
"It was very exciting and I was very apprehensive because I realized that anything that could go wrong would be fatal for the astronauts," Pellman replied when asked how he felt during the Apollo 11 moon landing, reports The World 247.
Pellman attributes sensible eating, and exercise as reasons for his longevity and good health.
"People ask me what do you attribute your success [to] and I can say four words: 'eat sensibly and exercise' - those are the things that you have to do. Eat sensibly, keep your weight down, and exercise every time you get a chance," he explained according to Fox News.
