Keith happy with life at 100
SAILING into Sydney Har- bour in 1945, Keith Shields couldn’t have been more impressed.
“It was like heaven,” he said, recalling the crowd of people and dinghies, yachts and sailboats that had packed the water to greet returning soldiers.
“I don’t think you could have put another dinghy in the bay,” he laughed.
But now, over seven decades later, Shields is part of history in another way, as he celebrates his 100th birthday with his family in Ocean Grove. Born in Geelong in 1919, Shields was a talented swimmer and swam freestyle for St Helens and North Geelong Technical School, competing in the “tough shield” at the Brunswick Baths against several other technical schools.
He left school at 14 to work for a butcher for several years before enlisting in the army,
“I wanted to do whatever I could,” Shields said, explaining he was sent to Canungra, Queensland, for jungle training ahead of deployment to New Guinea. “But they should have sent you to New Guinea to train you for Canungra,” he said.
After the war, Shields married his sweetheart, Patricia, in December 1950. He now has three loving grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
He says his family is one of the best parts of a century of life.
While he worked a number of jobs, Shields’ longest was being in charge of the purchasing department at Shell Refinery for 18 years. A highlight he says, was negotiating with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro over the phone.
Castro told Shields Cuba would not do business with the Australians, because they were too closely tied with the English. “I told him we wouldn’t have a bar of that lot,” Shields laughed.