Russell Coffey

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James Russell Coffey, Ed.D. (September 1, 1898 – December 20, 2007) was one of the last three American veterans of the First World War and also the oldest one of them.

Biography

Born in Tiro, Ohio^[1], Coffey enlisted in the United States Army in October 1918, about a month before the armistice was signed. He was a student at The College of Wooster, living in Creston and taking a streetcar to Akron, where he worked in a rubber factory to pay his tuition. Two older brothers already were serving overseas, and he never shipped out. Russell was honorably discharged that same December.

Coffey met his future wife, Bernice, in Creston. She lived one street away, and they courted from about the time of his Army discharge until their marriage in 1922. Their only child, Betty Jo, was born in 1923 and died in September 2007. At 84, she was his only immediate relative still living. He died in a nursing facility in North Baltimore.

Coffey finished his bachelor's and master's degrees at Ohio State University. He got a doctorate in education at New York University.

In June 2005, Coffey visited the Buckeye Boys State program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

By late March 2007, he was one of the last three known surviving American-born World War I veterans,^[2] as well as the oldest of them. After the death of Harry Richard Landis in February 2008, Frank Buckles became the oldest living American veteran of World War I. John Babcock is a Canadian-born American who served in the Canadian army during the war.

See also

World War I portal

• Veterans of the First World War who died in 2007

References

External links

• Oldest WWI-era vet joined weeks before war's end
• Last World War I veteran in Ohio dies at age 109
• 1 of last U.S. World War I vets dies in Ohio at age 109
• Oldest U.S. WWI vet dies in Ohio at 109