When he was one-year old, his dad, a retiring, career Army man, put his two-year old brother and him in the sidecar of a motorcycle as Mom wrapped her arms around Dad, and they drove… all the way from New York to San Francisco on myriad dirt roads and side trails… in 1924.
Warren Stone, now 99.75 years old, has no idea what possessed his father to perform such a crazy feat in uprooting his family and going west. He swears he never saw his dad ride a motorcycle again! Stoney, as he’s called by everyone, celebrates his 100th birthday here on November 16, 2023.
What’s perhaps most remarkable about this understated, kind, even-tempered gentleman, is that he still plays FOUR full rounds of golf weekly! He’s done so every week for the past 25+ years (since he retired from the local print industry). Do the math… Stoney has played over 5,000 rounds of golf… since he was in his mid-70s! Currently sporting a 35-handicap, this nonchalant nonagenarian humbly claims that while he’s never really been very good at the game (but he had a 6-handicap at age 70), he simply loves to compete ($2 bets are the norm).
He only took up golf at age 50 because a dang tennis elbow forced him to stop playing that repetitive sport. He didn’t play competitive team sports in school (“too slow” he says), and he’s had no major injuries precluding him from playing every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday- mostly at O`ahu Country Club in Nu`uanu, but also weekly at Navy-Marine Golf Course off Nimitz Highway (nice and flat, unlike undulating O`ahu CC).
Stoney first arrived here via military duty in 1942, moved full-time to O`ahu in 1956, and has played regularly at O`ahu CC for 50-years. His life philosophy? “It’s really day to day when you’re 99…”, he chortles. He eats eggs with sausage or bacon every morning and loves his prime rib confirms wife, Karen. Through a Portland, Oregon, business contact in the mid-1980s, he helped bring MidWeek newspaper to O’ahu. He reminisces about a Honolulu with no traffic, no high-rises, and fewer people: “…a nice, little town”.
And golf? “It keeps your mind working, even if it’s how badly I hit the ball!” Now that’s a Stone-cold fact. Life may be too short, but less so if you enjoy every day. And Stoney’s only looking fore-ward.
Think about it…