Anyone who knows Chapel Pointe resident, Alden Pope Lewis, knows he can often be found walking near home, sharing jokes with friends, or gazing at the stars through his eight-inch telescope. Alden turns 100 on July 24, 2022.
He welcomes change and is excited by new technology. His apartment, where he has lived for 20 years, is filled with curios and gadgets plus all kinds of hand tools including a vise attached to the dining room table; he loves to fix things. He has a 3-D mirror, a 1960(!) radio-controlled clock, his seventh computer, posters of planets and much more.
Alden was born in Flushing, Queens, NY and raised in nearby Elmhurst. He worked a variety of jobs from keeping the subway running to fixing radios. For the subway, he remembers handling mercury with bare hands and cleaning it by squeezing it through a chamois.
He studied engineering at night for six years. Though he’s quite interested in technology, he also enjoys reading and writing. When his three boys were young, he gave up the idea of finishing college for more family time. It had gotten to the point where he would ask his wife, Eleanor, things like, “Whose kid is this? Is he one of ours? How many do we have now?”
Some of Alden's favorite memories include Christmas caroling in the snow, riding a side-wheeler riverboat up the Hudson, and building a seismograph and a six- inch telescope.
Alden believes, "laughter does good like a medicine." God gave him a wife whose cooking always had him enjoying healthful food, but not too much. More important than food, he tries not to forget that Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything.”
He knows he’ll be here as long as God has work for him, if only to cheer up those around him. "The idea is to keep breathing a little longer," Alden joked.
For his 100th birthday, his three sons have arranged a party. He plans to celebrate with relatives, some of whom he hasn't seen in years, and his Chapel Pointe friends old and new.