American centenarians

Maxine_Grimm

Maxine Shields Grimm (née Tate; May 18, 1914 – February 10, 2017) was a prominent American religious figure. She played a role in re-introducing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to the Philippines after World War II. She was instrumental in restoring the Benson Grist Mill as a historical site in Tooele County, Utah. She has served on several advisory boards and committees.

Ralph_Hauenstein

Ralph Hauenstein (March 20, 1912 – January 10, 2016) was an American philanthropist, army officer and business leader, best known as a newspaper editor. His leadership has produced institutions such as the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University, the Hauenstein Parkinsons and Neuroscience Centers at Saint Mary's Hospital and the Grace Hauenstein Library at Aquinas College.

Martin_Magner

Martin Magner (March 5, 1900 – January 30, 2002) was a German-American theatre, radio, and television director.
Magner was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland); his father was a Lutheran director of a shipping line and his mother a Jewish concert pianist. He acted in the Hamburg Chamber Theatre from the age of 18 and replaced the general director of the company when he left for fear of the Nazis, despite his protest that he was himself Jewish. Four years later, on March 21, 1933, after being ordered to fire the company's remaining Jews, he fled to Vienna.For the following three years he worked there, in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), and in Prague, where he directed operas. During these years he won praise from George Bernard Shaw, who liked his production of his play Too True to Be Good enough to call Magner an exception to his rule that "Youth is wasted on the young", and Sigmund Freud, who offered to train him as a lay psychoanalyst on the strength of a play about a psychiatrist. He declined.In 1936 Magner emigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago, where a Prague friend, Kurt Adler, was doing theatre work. For a while he taught at Northwestern University and again directed opera. In the 1940s he moved to radio and then in 1943 to television, working as a producer and director for 25 years, first for NBC and then from 1950 to 1965 for CBS in New York. His work included pioneering shows like Studio One, The Goldbergs, Lamp Unto My Feet, and Robert Montgomery Presents, and he hired a young Studs Terkel.After having to retire when he reached the age of 65, he moved to California and returned to theatre; he became the artistic director of the Inglewood Playhouse and started the New Theatre Inc. with Hope Summers. He made a practice of celebrating his birthday by directing a challenging play: for his 98th, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Play Strindberg and for his 99th, the West Coast premiere of Thomas Hurlimann's The Envoy. He preferred classics; other examples were Georg Büchner's Woyzeck, Ben Jonson's Volpone, Jean Paul Sartre's The Condemned of Altona, Somerset Maugham's The Sacred Flame, and Athol Fugard's Blood Knot. He often used multi-racial casts.The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle gave him a special award in 1975 and a lifetime achievement award in 1989.Magner enjoyed mountain climbing. He was married for the third time to the photographer Marion Palfi; she died of breast cancer in 1979. He died of cancer in Los Angeles.

Rudolf_Schrader

Rudolf Schrader (also spelled Rudolph) (March 17, 1875 – January 18, 1981) was an American gymnast who competed at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. As a member of the Turnverein Vorwärts club he placed seventh in the team all-around and participated in three individual events, his best finish being 68th in the gymnastic triathlon. Born in Germany, Schrader moved to the United States at the age of 15 and worked as a cabinetmaker while training as a gymnast. After the Olympics he joined Sears and remained with them until his retirement at the age of 65. Until he was surpassed by Walter Walsh in March 2013, Schrader was the longest-lived Olympian, having died in January 1981 at the age of 105.

Arthur_R._von_Hippel

Arthur Robert von Hippel (November 19, 1898 – December 31, 2003) was a German American materials scientist and physicist. Von Hippel was a pioneer in the study of dielectrics, ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, and semiconductors and was a codeveloper of radar during World War II.

Louis_Crump

Louis Morris Crump (May 21, 1916 – April 6, 2019) was an American politician in the state of Texas. Crump was born in Santa Anna, Texas. He was a lawyer, residing in San Saba, Texas. He served in the Texas State Senate from 1959 to 1967 as a Democrat from the 16th district. From 1963 to 1967, he served as president pro tempore of the state senate. He turned 100 in May 2016 and died at the age of 102 in 2019.

Adam_Perez_Diaz

Adam Perez Diaz (September 2, 1909 – March 5, 2010) was the first Hispanic elected to the Phoenix City Council and also the first Hispanic to serve as Phoenix's Vice-Mayor. Diaz was appointed to the National Council on Aging by President Bill Clinton. Díaz was among the first seven recipients of the Profiles of Success Hispanic Leadership Award's in the Hall of Fame category.

Franco_Rasetti

Franco Dino Rasetti (August 10, 1901 – December 5, 2001) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist, paleontologist and botanist. Together with Enrico Fermi, he discovered key processes leading to nuclear fission. Rasetti refused to work on the Manhattan Project on moral grounds.