Leland Mcphie

Personal

Vocation

American centenarian track and field athlete who found success in Masters athletics competitions. He also holds the currently ratified M95 American records in the long jump and triple jump. Just four days after his 100th birthday, competing in the USATF Masters Indoor Championships, McPhie was the first centenarian athlete to attempt the high jump, though he failed to clear the bar. McPhie joined the Army to fight in World War II, returning to San Diego State to complete his degree. From 1940 to 1969 he worked for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, by 1954 becoming the youngest to attain the rank of captain. During the Vietnam War, he worked for the State Department and picked up the game of tennis. Still decades later he joined a tennis competition at the local Senior Olympics and noticed a track meet going on associated with the event. Since joining in that day, he won over 200 gold medals and set numerous American and world records. Widowed in 2000, he survived open heart surgery in 2004 and a couple of forms of cancer. From his recollection, he has three living children, five or six grandchildren and “about 30′′ great-grandchildren. He died in San Diego, California on 3 September 2015, aged 101, from a rare form of E. coli bacterial infection. Link to Wikipedia biography