Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen (August 16, 1882 – April 25, 1998), known as Christian Mortensen, was a Danish

supercentenarian A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...

, who resided in California, United States."Christian Mortensen, 115, Among Oldest"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', May 3, 1998. Accessed February 16, 2007 When he died, his age of 115 years and 252 days was the longest verified male lifespan at the time, until

Jiroemon Kimura was a Japanese supercentenarian who lived for 116 years and 54 days. He became the verified oldest man in history on 28 December 2012, when he surpassed the age of Christian Mortensen (1882–1998), as well as, so far, the only man who has li ...

surpassed him in 2012. Mortensen was baptized in on December 26, 1882. Besides his baptismal record, other records include the 1890 and 1901 census enumerations in Denmark, and church

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

in 1896.

Biography

Christian Mortensen was born the son of a tailor in the village of

Skårup Skårup is a town located on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark in Svendborg Municipality close to the city of Svendborg Svendborg () is a town on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark, and the seat of Svendborg Municipality. W ...

, near the city of

Skanderborg Skanderborg is a town in Skanderborg municipality, Denmark. It is situated on the north and north eastern brinks of Skanderborg Lake and there are several smaller ponds and bodies of water within the city itself, like Lillesø, Sortesø, Døj S ...

, Denmark, on August 16, 1882. He began work as a tailor's apprentice in Skanderborg at age 16, in 1898, and later took work as a farmhand. Christian Mortensen birth record

Mortensen emigrated to

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

in the New York Bay area, the United States in 1903, then aged about 20 or 21 years old. He traveled while working as a tailor, but settled in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he had relatives. Mortensen worked various trades, including as a milkman for Borden Dairy Company, as a restaurateur, and as a factory worker for the

Continental Can Company Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company, that was based in Stamford, Connecticut."CONTINENTAL GROUP COMPANY." ''International Directory of Company Histories''. Ed. Thomas Derdak. Vol. 1. Ch ...

. He was married for less than ten years, divorced and had no children. He did not remarry. In 1950, Mortensen retired near

Galveston Bay, Texas Galveston Bay ( ) is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of ...

. Then, 28 years later at the age of 96, he moved to a retirement home in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...

. Mortensen claimed he rode his bicycle to the Aldersly Retirement Community, telling the staff that he was there to stay. Mortensen lived at Aldersly for almost 20 years until his death in 1998. Mortensen was visited by American scientist James Vaupel and other longevity researchers on the occasion of his 113th birthday. He was particularly pleased with a box of Danish cigars that the researchers had brought him. Mortensen enjoyed an occasional cigar and insisted that

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...

in moderation was not unhealthy. Mortensen preferred a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

diet. He also drank boiled water. Mortensen was legally blind towards the end of his life and spent much of his time in a wheelchair listening to the radio. Toward the end of his life, his memory of distant events was good, but he could not remember recent events and increasingly needed assistance from staff. On his 115th birthday, Mortensen gave his advice for a long life: "Friends, a good cigar, drinking lots of good water, no alcohol, staying positive and lots of singing will keep you alive for a long time".

References

External links

* Obituaries
''Dagbladet''
an

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortensen, Christian 1882 births 1998 deaths American supercentenarians Danish emigrants to the United States Men supercentenarians People from San Rafael, California People from Skanderborg Municipality

Biography

See also

References

External links