by Michelle Mullen<\/p>\n
Sitting in his Kingsbridge apartment, Arthur Koven reached into his wallet and pulled out a piece of another era. The old Philippine currency had long since lost its monetary value, he said, but Koven kept it anyway. There, it remains as a small remnant of the months he spent overseas after World War II. More is tucked away elsewhere, he said, including an attach\u00e9 case filled with memorabilia from a life that now stretches across a century.<\/p>\n
Koven turned 100 on Aug. 18, marking 10 decades that have taken him from a Depression-era childhood in the Bronx to military service overseas and more than 60 years in greater Riverdale.<\/p>\n
His story began in Washington Heights in 1926. An only child of Lithuanian immigrants, Koven spent most of his childhood in the west Bronx, moving through Walton, Morris and Davidson avenues as his parents tried to keep him close to each new school. His father worked in restaurants, a trade that helped insulate the family from some of the hardships of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t suffer because we had enough to eat,\u201d Koven said. \u201cWe were in the right business.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1943, he enrolled at City College, where he initially imagined becoming an engineer. He wasn\u2019t there long, however. At the end of December 1944, Koven was drafted into the Army. He was 18, and by then, he said, young men had come to expect military service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understood that it was necessary, so it really didn\u2019t bother me that much,\u201d he said. \u201cBothered my parents, since I\u2019m the only one. It\u2019s not the best thing for a youngster to go off to war, but I adjusted very well to the military.\u201d<\/p>\n
After training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Koven was sent to the Philippines. U.S. forces spent much of 1944 and 1945 retaking the islands from Japan, which had occupied them for more than three years. Even after Japan\u2019s surrender in September 1945, American troops remained in the region.<\/p>\n
He spent three months there before being shipped to southern Korea as part of the American occupation force, where he remained for another 10 months. Altogether, he spent two years in the Army.<\/p>\n
For Koven, the deployments also offered a chance to see the world beyond New York, something he had longed for since childhood. He had avidly collected international stamps, buying them in bags and organizing them into albums.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interest came from stamp collecting,\u201d Koven said. \u201cI liked to learn about foreign places.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he returned to New York, that curiosity became his profession. Koven resumed his education at City College\u2019s School of Business and Civic Administration, which later became Baruch College, and studied foreign trade. He spent his career in international logistics, arranging the movement of goods for companies importing and exporting products through ports around the country.<\/p>\n
His life changed in another way through a less predictable arrangement at 35 \u2014 a blind date with a woman named Joyce.<\/p>\n
Koven had already been on dozens of blind dates, he said, but this one was different.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a successful blind date is almost a miracle, because most times they don\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, it was such a successful date that we were engaged three months later on Valentine\u2019s Day and married four months after that in June.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple had two children and later four grandchildren. In 1964, the family moved to Kingsbridge, in part to remain near Joyce\u2019s father. Koven still lives in the same building today.<\/p>\n
Retirement, in January 2000, brought another institution into his life. Koven joined the Riverdale Y, becoming part of its New Beginnings older adult center. Open to those 60 and older, New Beginnings\u2019 free programming offers a space for seniors to receive free kosher lunch, engage in classes ranging from health and wellness to poetry workshops, and remain connected to their community.<\/p>\n
Koven has been a member for roughly 25 years, and largely credits his longevity to its role in his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that being social and among people has an impact on your mental and physical health,\u201d he said. \u201cThat being active in a center and following good nutrition rules will lead to longevity. I\u2019m the perfect example for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his birthday, the Y returned some of that affection.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz and Council member Eric Dinowitz joined New Beginnings members on Aug. 18 to honor Koven, along with a representative from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He received plaques recognizing his 100th birthday and military service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had so much attention. I became a celebrity,\u201d Koven said of the event. \u201cThere were quite a few other August birthdays other than myself. I was the main attraction because of my age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he actually feels 100, Koven let out a chuckle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate that I\u2019m walking around, and I\u2019m not sick,\u201d Koven said. \u201cI don\u2019t have diabetes, cancer, heart problems. How lucky can you get?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tArthur Koven,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t 100th birthday,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t centenarian,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Kingsbridge,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t greater Riverdale,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Riverdale Y,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t New Beginnings,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t World War II,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t U.S. Army,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Philippines,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t South Korea,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t military service,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t international logistics,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t City College,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx history,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t senior center,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t longevity\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michelle Mullen Sitting in his Kingsbridge apartment, Arthur Koven reached into his wallet and pulled out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[22017,126967,128,40253,59902,26006,126968,126969,12119,13532,21402,69173,9,24,63,21640,69172,10984,9887,129,131,130,62937,11937],"class_list":["post-338089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-100th-birthday","tag-arthur-koven","tag-bronx","tag-bronx-history","tag-centenarian","tag-city-college","tag-greater-riverdale","tag-international-logistics","tag-kingsbridge","tag-longevity","tag-military-service","tag-new-beginnings","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-philippines","tag-riverdale-y","tag-senior-center","tag-south-korea","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-u-s-army","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}