Howard Lloyd

Fifty years ago, when Howard Lloyd was 48 years old, his Illinois physician suggested that he go to Mayo Clinic for a "good going over." He was getting numerous colds, and had a deviated septum. "They fixed that," says Mr. Lloyd.

The doctor he saw on that first visit told him, "I think you should come here on an annual basis." That sounded like a good idea to Mr. Lloyd, who has had regular physicals at Mayo since then. For the past 22 years, travel to those check-ups has involved simply crossing the street, or using a skywalk that connects Charter House to Mayo Clinic. On January 10, 1985, Mr. Lloyd and his wife, Myrtle, were the first people to move into Charter House, a retirement community on the Mayo campus.

During one of his annual check-ups, a dermatologist found a suspicious lesion on Mr. Lloyd's head and said, "We'd better take a look at that." The dutiful patient took his advice — a fortunate decision that resulted in the discovery of a tumor.

The squamous cell carcinoma was surgically removed, but recurred three times after surgical removal and had spread throughout the scalp and invaded nerves. So, in June 2006, the treatment team decided to treat Mr. Lloyd's whole scalp with radiation therapy. "He did great and looks great," says radiation oncologist, Dr. Robert L. Foote.

"It scorched my scalp, but it got the cancer out," says Mr. Lloyd. Every morning he goes to the Home Health Department at Charter House, where they put ointment on his scalp and cover it with gauze. A surgical cap keeps dirt off his head.

The hair loss that troubles many patients after cancer treatment doesn't bother Mr. Lloyd. "I'm bald as a billiard ball," he says. "I was losing some hair at my age anyhow, but that got the rest of it."

Except for his years on active duty as a naval officer, Mr. Lloyd lived in Illinois most of his life. He served as a small boat commander in the Pacific during World War II, taking small landing craft from a mother ship to the beach. After World War II, he established a brokerage in Chicago, and was there until he reached retirement age and sold out to a partner in 1971. During the first few years of his retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd spent some winter months in Florida and some summer months at a vacation home. During those years, they looked at retirement facilities in Florida and Philadelphia before settling on Charter House.

"We're Midwesterners," Mr. Lloyd says, "and we didn't want to be away from Mayo. Another reason we decided to move here was Myrtle's macular degeneration." The two 98-year-old sports fans enjoy watching baseball and football. "We look at TV together, and I tell her what's going on because of her vision problem. I like the Chicago Cubs." As for college teams, he says, "I'm a retired naval officer. After four years of active duty, and six in the reserves, I'm still all Navy."

The navy is a family tradition. "There are six naval officers in my family. My son was a submarine officer. We lost him in 1968 when he was off the coast of Spain. My great-granddaughter is a graduate of the Naval Academy."

"If I was to say one reason that I've lived this long — other than Mayo Clinic — it's that I have kept physically fit through exercise and sports. I played tournament tennis for many years in Chicago. I had to quit playing about 20 years ago, but you can play for a long time." At their winter apartment in Florida, they were acquainted with a family who asked Mr. Lloyd to teach their 14-year-old to play tennis. "I did that for a few weeks," he says, "and it was fun. But then I stopped teaching him because he was starting to beat me."

Most of the time he uses his wheelchair to get around because of a severe knee injury from a fall from his bicycle in 2001. Even now, Mr. Lloyd spends 15 or 20 minutes exercising every morning, bracing himself on a table to do leg lifts.

"We take the elevator to dinner and to the ground floor to go out with Barbara." Their widowed daughter, Barbara Knaak, drives from Northfield to Rochester once a week and takes them shopping for groceries. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd prepare their breakfasts and lunches in their Charter House apartment, and enjoy going out to dinner with friends at the 22nd floor dining room.

Mr. Lloyd says, "I think I'm living so long because of Mayo. I'm doing what they tell me to do — at least most of the time."