William Schloeder is part of a rare group of people who are over 100 years old and are World War II veterans.

According to The National WWII Museum, in 2025, only 45,418 of U.S. World War II veterans were still living out of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II. In other words, less than 0.5% of WWII veterans are still living. In Washington state, 1,328 WWII veterans are recorded as living here.

One of those 1,328 veterans in Washington is Schloeder, 100, of Federal Way, who recently entered a group few reached. Additionally, according to the Pew Research Center, in 2024, only o.03% of Americans were 100 years or older.

Schloeder was born on Dec. 12, 1925, and grew up on a 160-acre farm near a small town named Richmond in Minnesota. Schloeder grew up with his mom, dad and six siblings. Schloeder said as a kid, he liked to fish, hunt and fight with his brothers for fun, and he was outside most of the time.

The school he went to was about three-quarters of a mile away and it would take him about half an hour to get there. Schloeder said the school he went to was pretty small, noting that he was the only first-grader, so he joined the second-grade class instead. There were about 15 kids in his entire elementary school.

Schloeder said that in middle school, he played some basketball, but what he was more interested in was boxing. He would listen to boxing on the radio, as there were no televisions widely available. One of his favorite boxers was Joe Louis.

He focused on studies a lot in high school, and in his free time, he would box and do farm work. There was no fast food back then, so going to get a quickly made burger with his friends wasn’t an option. He said there were sit down restaurants, but he would mostly just eat food his mother made.

At 17, he volunteered to join the Air Force so he could help out in World War II. Schloeder said he didn’t remember his mother being upset with his volunteering to join the war. He said if someone was young and healthy, it felt like doing the country a favor by volunteering.

“You felt like you were doing what you were supposed to do. That’s why you were trained,” Schloeder said.

Schloeder said after the war was over, he started doing sales for a company named Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, which is no longer around, but made machines for embossing metal.

Eventually, in the 1970s, Schloeder moved to the San Diego area and started his own company that sold electronic cash registers. He said he continued running that business until about three years ago, when he retired at 97. When he retired, he moved to Federal Way.

Schloeder said that in his 100 years of life, he tried to eat moderately healthy, but he never did anything in particular to extend his life. He thinks he just has good genetics for living long, noting that his dad died at 103 years old. However, Schloeder said he feels particularly lucky about having lived such a long life because when he was in his mid-twenties, he said he was drinking some alcohol, and he drove his car off a bridge.

Regarding what’s important in life, Schloeder emphasized relationships with others and being a person who does what they say they will do. Schloeder also said accepting disappointments without carrying them forever is important.

“Have fun and be a decent person in your dealings with people. Don’t be too concerned about being rich or having more than anybody else,” Schloeder said. “Be a person that your relatives and your acquaintances are proud of. That pretty much says it, okay.”