Walter Breuning was born on September 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minnesota, and moved to Montana in 1918, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years.
His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children.
Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world's oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113. Allingham had joked that the secret to long life was "Cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women - and a good sense of humor," according to Guinness World Records.
The Guinness organisation and the Gerontology Research Group each have verified Breuning as the world's oldest man and the fourth-oldest person. Three women were born earlier in the same year as Breuning.
Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records, presented Breuning with a copy of the book's 2011 edition that lists him as the record holder.
"Walter wasn't in last year's edition," Young joked. "He was too young."
Text: AP
Image: Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (left) jokes with Walter Breuning during a birthday party for Breuning at the Rainbow Retirement Community in Great Falls, on Tuesday, Sept 21, 2010. (Photographs copyright AP)
