This 103-year-old Iowan wants to take selfies with 1,000 riders
- 27 July, 2017
- Kim Norvell
NEW HAMPTON, Ia. — Paul Hassman knows a lot about today’s Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride meeting town – because he’s lived here all of his 103 years.
Hassman sat under a white tent all morning welcoming riders to town. His goal was to take 1,000 selfies with RAGBRAI participants.
By 11 a.m. he’d taken at least 800, said his friend, Bill Riley.
“Since 8 o’clock this morning there’s been a line,” Riley said. “Everybody is just thrilled by it. And he hasn’t stopped talking.”
Hassman was born in 1914. He grew up on a farm four miles south of New Hampton and has lived here his whole life. He and his wife raised eight children here.
He was the state wrestling champion in 1933 and has been an active Rotary Club member here for 67 years.
Hassman rode RAGBRAI every year between 1986 and 1995, quitting at the age of 80.
“The Lord’s been good to me,” said Hassman, who keeps an inspirational quote in his billfold at all times. He handed copies of them out to riders.
The Rotary Club, where Hassman still attends weekly meetings, asked the 103-year-old to sit along the RAGBRAI route so they could celebrate and recognize his long life, said former president Jay Jurrens. There were long lines of riders eager to meet Hassman and shake his hand.
He was too.
“It’s been good,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of friends that I don’t know yet.”
View more photos from Day 5 of RAGBRAI:
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