Education and Workforce Development Cabinet
Richmond centenarian receives national honor

FRANKFORT, Ky.  – Frank Joseph Carey, a Richmond centenarian, has been inducted into the 10² Talking Book Club, sponsored by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a division of the Library of Congress (NLS.)

Carey is one of only 16 Kentuckians honored to date by induction into the prestigious club, which was created by NLS to recognize the accomplishments of Talking Book patrons who are 100 years of age or older and continue to be active readers.

Carey has been using the Kentucky Talking Book Library since June 2009, and has read 86 books, averaging three books per week. He is registered through the Talking Book Library to download books from the Braille and Audio Reading Download site (BARD), a website where registered users can download books to listen to on a special digital player. The service is free of charge.

Currently his favorite authors are Elmore Leonard, John Grisham and James Patterson. “I love downloading the books of my choice from BARD,” said Carey. “Listening to audio books is my main source of entertainment. I love stories, especially mystery and nonfiction. I don’t know what I would do without audio books.”

Carey has long been a fan of reading, as well as sports. He always loved reading, particularly as a teenager. He made sure to find time to read even as he pitched for his Bordentown High School, N.J. baseball team, played quarterback for the football team and played on the basketball team. He had to make a special effort to read, growing up in a home that had no gas, no electricity, no heat and no bathroom. He spent a lot of time as a child walking along the railroad tracks with a bucket, gathering chunks of coal that had fallen off of the coal cars and bringing them home for his parents to burn for heat.

After graduating from high school, Carey continued his love of reading and sports, playing intramural basketball at Rider University, then Rider College. Graduating from college during the Great Depression meant that Carey faced a tough job market, just as today’s college graduates face. The 1931 Rider University graduate with a degree in business and banking was very pleased to secure a job with the S.S. Kresge Company for $12 a week. Carey advises today’s students to “strive to get the best grades you can possibly get.”

Carey worked for S.S. Kresge Company for 10 years, then worked at a plant in Trenton, N. J., helping make TM bombers for the Navy. At the end of the war he moved with his family to Miami, Fla., where he worked for 26 years at Miami International Airport, retiring from Eastern Airlines in 1974.

Carey has lived in Richmond with his daughter and son-in-law for five years. He enjoys following the University of Kentucky Wildcats, watching horseracing on TV and the occasional visit to Keeneland Race Track.

“At this age I like to listen to audio stories, watch TV and bet on the horses,” he said.

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