PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Dr. Samuel Bender is 108 years young.
The Providence resident is also one of the oldest Rhode Islanders to vote in the 2024 presidential election, according to the Rhode Island Secretary of State.
Bender told 12 News he graduated from Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine back in 1941. He worked for the government as a federal meat inspector in Chicago for roughly six months before opening his own private veterinary practice in the Bronx.
The New York native held a wide variety of clients throughout his veterinary career, including former Communist Party candidate Gus Hall. Bender said Hall would regularly leave his dog with Bender while he was traveling.
“The FBI and the CIA were always on his tail, and I always knew that if the dog was at my place, he was somewhere else,” Bender said.
Bender has voted in dozens of presidential elections and vividly remembers when Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke at his high school while on the campaign trail.