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82-year-old veteran still working at Carmel City Hall

CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — A man who jumped out of an airplane 101 times as a paratrooper is now the man responsible for keeping Carmel’s city hall clean.

His name is Hughie Cooper and he is 82 years old.

He tried retiring when he was 66 and a half after working as a tool and die maker, but said after three months he was going crazy and went back to work.

He’s responsible for vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms and emptying the trash at Carmel City Hall.

It’s easy to understand why he’s not very good at sitting around.

“I was in the 82nd Airborne Division, paratrooper, I jumped out of a plane 101 times, and I made my last jump in Beirut, Lebanon in 1959,” Cooper said.

It’s just one of the things his co-workers respect about him.

“He’s a fella that has more energy than all of us and he just loves people and I think they’re the ones who keep him going, this building and the people in it,” said receptionist Wanda Moran.

“When I retired at 66 and a half, if I would have stayed sitting around watching TV, I wouldn’t be alive today,” Cooper said.

He’s so loved at Carmel’s City Hall that on his 80th birthday, they threw him a surprise birthday.

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