***Centenarian Heroes

Forget Superman and Beckman. Choose remarkable centenarians as role models. Here are four who recently made the news:

At 104, R. Waldo McBurney maintains a downtown office in Quinter, Kansas where he sells honey from his 199 colonies of bee hives. He still competes in several track events in the Senior Olympics. In 2004, he came out with his first book, My First 100 Years.

The mysterious decline in bee populations is causing an agricultural crisis. Bees not only produce honey, they pollinate flowers and plants. A diagnosis of the problem may come from a young scientist, or it may come from 101-year-old beekeeper Wendell Cummings. He has kept bees since he was a child. Several years ago, he downsized his honey business, but he still does a lot of observing and thinking about bees. He believes he the mysterious decline in the bee populations is due to a new strain of beetles from South America. Scientists are seriously studying his theory.

Centenarian Kathryn Davis could have spent her millions self-indulgently. Instead she donated $20 million for clean up and conservation along the Hudson River where she still loves to kayak. Her “1000 Projects for Peace” scholarships awards $10,000 scholarships to undergraduates who develop and implement grassroots ideas for peace . She also has funded several projects to study Russian language and culture.

Jose “El Nino” Temprana was a Cuban sponge diver and lobster angler. He left Cuba in 1994 after spending thirty years in a Cuban prison for opposing Fidel Castro. At 105 he achieved a dream he has had since prison. He became an American citizen. He still enjoys gardening and socializing with lots of friends.