Charles Coolidge of Signal Mountain achieved on Tuesday something fewer than 1% of men in the United States do. And we're not talking about his being a Medal of Honor recipient, which far fewer than 1% ever receive.
The World War II Army technical sergeant, whose name adorns both Coolidge Park on Chattanooga's North Shore and the recently opened Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in the Tennessee Aquarium Plaza, turned 99 years old.
At 99, according to an online calculator, he has lived longer than 99.3% of other men born in 1921. Another online calculator says now that he is 99, he has a 67% chance of living to the age of 100.
Coolidge also is the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient. He earned that distinction, according to news reports, when 98-year-old Robert Dale Maxwell died in 2019.
Remarkably, he has survived to the age of 99 despite having multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years.
Coolidge, who appeared in public when the Medal of Honor Heritage Center opened in February, is also unusual in having worked in the same business - his family's printing business - for nearly his entire career. He began before his stint in the Army and, after a short time with the Veterans Administration following the war, rejoined the business. Family members say he worked there daily until the age of 84 in 2005 and kept coming to the office regularly until 2016, when he was 95.
The Signal Mountain native earned his Medal of Honor for leadership and courage in getting the men of his 36th Infantry Division to safety when they were vastly outnumbered after they cleared several hills east of Belmont Sur Buttant in eastern France near its border with Germany in October 1944.
The attributes he displayed during his heroic feat, along with maintaining good health (even with multiple sclerosis) and displaying a strong work ethic, certainly have made Coolidge a model to which Chattanoogans can aspire.