Korean War Vet Celebrates 100 Years of Life

SWAINTON – Henry Chipman Flurer has been a lot of things in his life – a combat veteran, a car mechanic, a teacher – but on March 25, 2023, he celebrated being one thing: 100 years old.
“I even got to dance,” Flurer said.
He boogied on the floor of the Avalon Country Club to “Hey Ba Ba Re Bop,” a 1946 swing tune by Lionel Hampton that swept the nation right after the Second World War. Flurer was drafted into that mighty conflict, but the war ended before he was able to serve.
In 1950, military duty called him once again. He was conscripted into the Korean War after North Korea invaded their neighbors in the south.
He served in the U.S. Army’s 1092nd Engineer Battalion as a combat engineer. He and many others were engaged in Seoul, South Korea, to, as Flurer put it, “maintain the peace.” He said that he and his battalion’s main objective was to restore the capital’s crumbling infrastructure.
“I built bridges. I did heavy construction. I helped build the capital,” he said.
Many of the South Korean locals looked at him and other soldiers with affection. He said that he helped several elderly women cross bridges that were destroyed and crumbled, and he became a de-facto father figure to several orphaned Korean boys who wandered the streets of Seoul.
“There was a little boy who lived there, Kim, and he and others helped me carry my guns and my gear,” he remembered. “They were young orphans. Korea was a devastated country. Those were like my adopted kids. They had been abused and kicked around. The whole country had been. Nobody had any money.”
After the war ended, Flurer entered the worlds of music and education. By day, he was an “industrial arts” teacher in Salisbury, Maryland. By night, he was a rock and roll drummer for two bands: June and the Escorts and The Rhythmettes.
Flurer remembered late nights at Ready’s Coffee Shop in Ocean City. He would hang out with his buddy, Dick Boccelli, an original member of the old rock band Bill Haley & His Comets.
Today, Flurer lives at his historic home in Maryland but spends much of the year with his family in Cape May County. Flurer’s property has over 10 acres of riverside grassy fields. To this day, he mows the whole property himself on an oversized John Deere lawnmower.
“I love it,” he said.
Even at 100, Flurer loves to restore old American automobiles. He travels to auto shows across Cape May County, most recently to the fall auto show at Secluded Acres in Rio Grande.
His prized car is a 1950 Studebaker Land Cruiser, so exaggerated in its proportions that passersby might mistake it for Tim Burton’s version of the Batmobile.
Flurer’s 100th birthday party was a celebration of a life well-lived. Over 65 people from South Jersey came out to celebrate. Although he lives in Maryland, he has visited family in Cape May County several times a month for over 30 years. He is a local in spirit. He will be remembered in Cape May County long after he is gone. 
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at chall@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 156.