101-year-old Dallas-area Lawyer Jack Borden Honored as Nation’s “Outstanding Oldest Worker” 

By David Flick, The Dallas Morning News

August 5, 2009

As for why he's still working, attorney Jack Borden submits: 'If I quit, I'll die.'

At 101 years old, Jack Borden often gets asked two questions: What's the secret to a long life? and When are you going to give up chewing tobacco? 

He dismisses the first ("Not dying") and simply ignores the second. 

"I've been hearing for 91 years that it's going to kill me," he said, projecting juice into a brass spittoon by his desk. "When you're old, you have to have something to give you pleasure." 

This afternoon, on his 101st birthday, Borden, a practicing lawyer, will be honored as the nation's "Outstanding Oldest Worker for 2009" by Experience Works, a nonprofit group dedicated to highlighting the workforce contributions of seniors.

To qualify for the honor, workers have to be at least 100 years old, said Cynthia Metzler, the organization's president. The other criteria are vague. But Borden was an obvious choice. 

"He's got energy, he's got enthusiasm, he's got passion," Metzler said. "He's really the model we're looking for." 

(But, as a tribute to the growing ranks of centenarians, Borden is not the oldest lawyer in Texas. According to official records, three living members of the state bar are older.) 

Borden reads without corrective eyewear and hears without an electronic aid. Though he needs a walker to get around, he regularly serves as a greeter at the First Baptist Church of Weatherford, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. 

He also co-hosts a local radio show on Parker County history. 

Feeling, however, that he would be unfairly blamed if he were involved in an automobile accident, Borden has given up driving. Mostly. 

"I still pick up my dry cleaning on Saturdays," he said. 

He arrives at his office at 6:30 every morning and leaves a little after 6 p.m. In deference to a bout of pneumonia four years ago, he now takes a 45-minute nap just before noon. 

Reluctantly bowing to prevailing standards, he comes to work on Fridays casually dressed. 

"People ask me why I'm still working," he said. "When I was 5 years old, my dad handed me a hoe and said the corn needs weeding. And that's how I got started." 

Borden was born Aug 5, 1908, on the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, on a farm that now lines the bottom of Lake Weatherford. His grandfather, who homesteaded the initial 120 acres, died young. His grandmother raised five children, added another 160 acres and lived to be 79. 

At Borden's birth, his family had already lived in Parker County for 54 years, a fact that became useful for clearing the field of opponents when Borden ran for district attorney in 1938. 

Among those considering a run was Ben Hagman, the father of actor Larry Hagman, who would one day represent Texas to the world, for better or worse, as J.R. Ewing. 

"The powers that be told him that he couldn't win against me," Borden said. "I was a country boy, and everybody knew my family. Ben was a foreigner; he came from Fort Worth." 

Borden ran for re-election two years later, also without opposition. In 1942, he was approached about joining the FBI by Paul Kitchen, the agent in charge of the Dallas office. Borden was interested but confessed that he had been rejected for military service for colorblindness, which he had been told also barred him from the FBI. 

"Kitchen asked, 'How colorblind are you?' Well, you're either colorblind or you're not, but I said, 'I don't run red lights,' so he sent me an application," Borden recalled. 

He was accepted, serving in South Carolina and Florida. He remembers the bureau's legendary director, J. Edgar Hoover, as strict but superstitious. 

"If he came into a hotel room and there was a hat on the bed, he exploded. He thought it was bad luck," he said. "I don't put my hat on the bed to this day." 

Borden returned to Weatherford after the war, where he ran for mayor twice in the 1960s – again, without opposition. 

In an office lined with plaques and awards for community service, Borden said he is most proud of his reputation as an attorney. 

He specializes in probate and real estate, still taking depositions and representing clients at the courthouse, though he leaves contested cases to a younger partner. 

"It's not unusual for him to come in and do five cases at a time – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang" said Linda Hagman, the county probate auditor and – as it happens – Larry Hagman's sister in law. 

"There are younger attorneys who stumble or forget things, but Jack doesn't do that." 
Borden returned again to the question of the secret to a long life, and this time spent more time on the answer. 

"I believe that God has something for us to do, and he wants me to work to do some good," he said. 

Besides, Borden added, "If I quit, I'll die. I know people who retire and two years later, they're gone."

More Information on US Elder Rights Issues

Copyright © Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us