Standing proudly with his five children, Jesus Acevedo Lopez acknowledged his 92-year-old wife Cecilia, his two sisters and one brother, and the multiple generations of family members that gathered this past Sunday afternoon to celebrate his 99th birthday.
The patriarch of a family that includes 11 grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, Jesus Lopez was born in 1915 in Harshaw, during its mining heyday. He served as a tank soldier in the Philippines during World War II and helped his family back in Harshaw by sending money to his mother during the war. He worked in the mines until he retired at the age of 62.
A tireless worker, his family reported that he continues to chop wood and had been tidying up the party site with the weedeater earlier that day.