Bob Gang celebrates 100 years

By Noah Cliff

Contributing Writer

The Skaneateles YMCA celebrated the 100th birthday of one of their long time members on Wednesday.

Bob Gang, of Marietta, goes to the YMCA just about everyday to exercise, even in his 100th year.

He was honored with a lifetime membership, a shirt that read “made in 1918- 100 years of being awesome,” and a party in his name.

“Everybody wants a party and I’m the instigator,” Gang said to a packed YMCA lobby.

He smiled from ear to ear as friends, family, and a group of toddlers sang him happy birthday.

Gang was born in 1918 at St. Joseph’s hospital in Syracuse and graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in 1935, seventy years before his youngest daughter, Heather.

He is also a World War II and Korean War Veteran.

He has eight children aged from 31-74, f15 grandchildren, and 27 great grandchildren.

Gang has been a member of the YMCA since it became one in 2010, and had been going to the community center for years before that.

He said he has been an outdoorsman all his life, whether it was hunting, fishing, canoeing, or playing tennis.

Gang also skii’d for almost 70 years, noting that he, “was better when I finished than when I was younger.”

It was on a ski trip to Vermont that he met his wife of 33 years, Holly Gang.

She described her husband as, “very relaxed and calm. He never really gets angry or stressed.”

Gang attends the primetime, or older adult classes at the Y, and he mentioned that he does exercises with very light weight to rotational exercises with no weight.

“I feel great,” Gang said when asked about being 100.

Skaneateles is home to the highest percentage of people aged 55 and older in Central New York, so the YMCA is a popular spot for older adults.

“It’s a nice sense of community here, people are very welcoming and accepting. It’s not just a matter of coming in and working out, people come here to socialize as well,” Skaneateles Branch Executive Director Dorothea Hughes said.

According to those there to wish him well on his milestone birthday, Gang is a a bleoved fixture at the YMCA.

This could easily be seen as lines of friends waited to wish him a happy birthday.

He spoke of all of the friendships he’s had while going there, and how he inspires people younger than him to remain active.

“I hope we can all follow in your footsteps,” said Hughes after awarding Bob with a lifetime membership.