81 Year Old Having Too Much Fun To Ever Think of Quitting

Roger Levering, flys to Marshall, MI from Cleveland, OH for lunch, every few weeks.

At 81 years young, Mr. Cleveland flies his own Beechcraft Bonanza single engine airplane all over the United States, usually for lunch at the nicest restaurants in the town where he chooses to land, on any given day.

He often stops at Schuler's in Marshall, "because the food is good, the people are really nice, and he gets a shuttle service every time from the airport to the restaurant and back again," this wonderful spry and "with-it" gentleman enthused.

Mr. Cleveland (not his real name), has fondly been called that, by the staff at Schuler's since they knew his flights originated from Cleveland area airports. That's all they really knew about him until one day, a reporter started asking more direct questions about this mystery man.

"He always shows up in a sport coat, tie, and starched white shirt," observed Jackie Slater, Schuler's supervisor at the front desk. "He's usually alone and is so courteous to all of the staff, we just fell in love with him, and yet we were afraid to pry into why he was here so often and by himself."

Turns out, he has been flying to Schuler's for lunch or dinner since his wife identified the town and restaurant as a place they ought to check out. He did this, some 27 years ago, just as he was taking up flying for the second time, when his career as an investment banker was at its peak.

His wife Marian was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 40 and was wheel chair bound for many years. But that didn't stop her zest for travel, nor his resolve to make sure she had a full, rich, life to lead. "She was a beauty, by golly. I met her on the steps of the Presbyterian Church in Staunton, VA. It was while I was marching with the cadets to chapel from Staunton Military Academy in 1941, and she was a student at Mary Baldwin College, right next door," he related.

"I told the boys in my unit right then and there that I was going to marry her, without knowing that she was dating the son of Arthur Saltzberger, Jr., the then famous publisher of the New York Times," he pronounced with a wink and a grin.

"I learned to fly in 1941 at the age of 16, up on the grassy mountain tops behind the military academy. They wouldn't take me in the Air Force when I applied, because they only took 'perfect specimens' back then. They tested me and found that I lacked depth perception, so I became a grunt in the infantry and was shipped off to Guadacanal, where the only injury I came back with was 'jungle rot'," he recited as he held up his left hand.

"My wife was loved and well-known by everyone near and far as the 'lady in the wheelchair' that always flew with her husband, even though it wasn't easy for her to get in and out of an airplane. She loved to plan our trips for lunch, especially to Schuler's because the first time she came here, Win Schuler met her at the door and made her feel right at home, even with the disability and difficulty she had getting up and down the steps. She just thought he was such a charming man and she loved the food and the ambiance," Mr. Cleveland explained.

Roger Levering, affectionately known as Mr. Cleveland at Schuler's Restaurant in Marshall, MI is greeted by Hans Schuler

"We have frequented restaurants from the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Texas, to the Nemacolin Woodlands in Pennsylvania, the Greenbrier in Virginia, and the Maisonette in Cincinnati. Just think of a place and we've been there," he exclaimed. "But we loved Schuler's the best."

"My wife's been gone for over eleven years, but I still continue to fly because I'm having so much fun. I have passed the medical test every two years, where last time the examiner remarked that I 'had the eyes of an eagle'. I exercise a lot, usually 45 minutes each day on the tread mill, and then I use the wheel for another 40 repetitions," he intoned.

"I look at the weather every day and decide where to fly. If it looks good anywhere, I'll go. I do this at least four days a week, and will go north, south, east or west, it doesn't matter, just so I can be flying," he proclaimed.

He has logged nearly 8,000 hours and his wife rode with him for over 4,000 of those hours. He keeps the Beechcraft Bonanza 36 at Hopkins Airport in Cleveland and is known there by his real name, W. Roger Levering, pilot extraordinaire.