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Dexter Kruger
Australian supercentenarian From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Dexter Kruger (13 January 1910 – 20 July 2021) was an Australian supercentenarian and author who was the oldest known living person in Australia at the time of his death.[1][2] He was also the oldest Australian man ever, until his age was surpassed by Ken Weeks on 12 April 2025.
At the time of his death, he was the seventh oldest living man in the world.[3]
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Biography
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Early life
Kruger was born on 13 January 1910 in Nundah, an inner suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to Albert Henry Kruger (1871–1959)[4] and Matilda Otto (1878–1961),[5] both of whom were of German descent. He had five siblings and grew up on the family farm in Kilcoy, a small town in Queensland, where he went to school. In 1942, he married Gladys Beanland (1908–1994), with whom he had one son, Greg Kruger.
He began selling cattle at 16 and acquired his own farmland in his twenties. He was a pioneer of the live-weight cattle selling system; in 1951, as a member of the United Graziers Association, an Australian Trade Union Association, he was able to pass a motion to have live-weight scales installed in Cannon Hill, Queensland.[6]
Later life
His wife died in 1994, at the age of 86 after half a century of marriage. Following the death of his wife, at the age of 86 Kruger started writing books, writing more than 300 stories in 12 separate books,[7] plus his autobiography, The Life and Times of Dexter Kruger, published on 17 May 2021.[8]
Kruger lived independently on his own until the age of 103, when he moved into a care home in Roma, Queensland, Australia.[9] Kruger was taken for a ride on a Harley Davidson motorcycle at the age of 106 and in December 2018, a month before his 109th birthday, he was visited by Queensland Senator, Amanda Stoker and Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Ann Leahy.
Media Appearances
In 2012, Kruger was featured in a documentary called "The 100+ Club", broadcast on Australian television. The documentary, followed the lives of Kruger and two other centenarians, Ruth Frith (1909–2014), and Olive Webber, who "lived active lives".[10] Kruger remained active in the media, being interviewed in 2013, for the podcast 100 Not Out, in which he talked about his life, detailed his dietary habits, and read some of his own poetry.[11] In 2017, he was interviewed as part of ABC's You Can’t Ask That series. When asked about sex, Kruger said "I've only had one girl in my life. I think one is enough. One is enough at a time, anyway." He considered the telephone the most significant invention of his lifetime, describing it as "like magic".[12][13][14]
Death
Dexter Kruger died at his Retirement Home in Roma, on 20 July 2021 after a brief illness, aged 111 years and 188 days.[15][16] In August 2021, he was posthumously featured in a documentary called The 110+ Club, broadcast as part of ABC Religion & Ethics.[17][18]
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Health and longevity
Health and diet
When he surpassed the final age of Jack Lockett, on 17 May 2021, he was asked by the then Defence Minister, Peter Dutton about his secret to his longevity to which he responded, "Find something you like to do, and do it well, I set myself a goal when I was quite young, and I achieved that."[19] Kruger also attributed his longevity to a remote lifestyle, his writing and diet, mentioning in interviews that he enjoyed eating chicken brains, which he described as "delicious little things".[20]
Longevity
Kruger became the oldest living Australian man on 30 April 2017, following the death of 108-year-old Alfred Powell[21] and the oldest living Australian on 30 December 2020, following the death of 111-year-old Mabel Crosby.
On 13 January he celebrated his 111th birthday, becoming the second Australian man since Jack Lockett to reach this milestone and the first since 2002.[22]
On 17 May 2021, he surpassed the 21 year-long record of Jack Lockett and became the oldest man ever from Australia.[23]
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See also
References
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