Matthew John Klapmust, seated, celebrates his 103rd birthday on Tuesday, April 12, at Job Haines Home in Bloomfield. With him are, from left, nephew David Klapmust, friend Clarence Wispelwey, niece Barbara Baker and great-grandniece Frankie Bergen.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A resident of Job Haines Home in Bloomfield, Matthew John Klapmust, celebrated his 103rd birthday on Tuesday, April 12. Born in Passaic, he moved with his family to Clifton when he was 4. Klapmust had three brothers and three sisters. A sister, Agnes, who is 101 years old, lives in Whiting.
Klapmust attended Passaic Christian Elementary School and Eastern Academy, a high school in Prospect Park. At 16, he left school for a job as a carpenter’s assistant, then worked for a time at Becton, Dickinson & Co., a medical equipment company.
He served three years in the Navy during World War II on the USS Canberra, a heavy cruiser, which was torpedoed off the coast of the Republic of Formosa. The ship was towed to dry dock in Ulithi, an atoll south of Japan, and then returned to Boston, under its own power, through the Panama Canal. By the time the USS Canberra was repaired, the atomic bomb had been dropped, Klapmust said, and the war was over.
Klapmust then began a landscaping business with an associate, Peter Vander Zee. It was located in Glen Rock. With peacetime, Klapmust said, he thought people would be purchasing homes and landscaping would be in demand.
A lifelong bachelor, Klapmust spent his winters in Florida and visited Cuba. He lived in Clifton until he was 96, at which time he moved to the Job Haines Home.
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