Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church recently honored two parishioners who celebrated their 100th birthdays this year. Al Surrette and Linus Losh were recognized at the 8 a.m. Mass on Sunday, July 20 and at a reception for them afterward.
Both are World War II veterans. Surrette was a pharmacist’s mate in the U.S. Navy hospital corps and took part in the U.S. Marines’ invasions of the Pacific islands of Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa in 1944 and 1945. Losh was a member of the U.S. Army’s 97th Division, 386th Regiment, serving in Europe from 1943 to 1946.
Surrette was born on July 11, 1925 in Bellows Falls, Vermont and joined the Navy at age 17 after high school with his parents’ permission. “It wasn’t unusual to do that back then,” he said. “So many of us young fellows loved our country and wanted to do our share.”
After finishing military service, “I visited a friend in Columbus, decided I liked it here and never came back,” he said. He had received instructions in drafting while in the service and continued his training at Ohio State University.
“I didn’t finish college because I got job offers in the construction business and was ready to go to work,” he said. His career included time as a crane operator, inspector and surveyor.
His wife, Frances O’Connell Surrette, died about 20 years ago. Surette said they were married for about 20 years and had three daughters. Surette also has nine grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren, many of whom attended the Mass recognizing him.
Surette has been a St. Paul parishioner for most of his time in Columbus. “I’ve attended Mass at three St. Paul churches and they keep getting bigger,” he said. “The parish started out in a little white church and had to build another (in the 1960s) when that one got too small. They outgrew that one and our new church (dedicated in 2011) is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”
He said he was among the volunteers who installed desks in the parish school before it opened in 1961 and was a member of the Knights of Columbus for more than 30 years. “I was in a bunch of other church activities, too. You just forget a lot as time passes, but I can say being a Catholic always has meant a great deal to me,” he said.
“I’ve been fortunate to live this long but can’t think of any reasons I’ve been able to, other than that I don’t drink and always tried to live a good, clean life. If there’s any advice I have for people who want to live to 100, it would be to follow that rule.”
Losh was born on March 3, 1925 in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood and entered the Army upon graduation from high school.
“The most memorable and satisfying thing about the war was being part of the first group of soldiers that liberated the Flossenbürg concentration camp in April 1945,” he said. As many as 100,000 prisoners, 30,000 of whom died there, passed through the camp in a remote area of Bavaria, helping build Messerschmitt fighter planes for the Nazis.
“Another very good feeling I can recall is laying outside at night or in the morning in Germany, seeing American bombers pass over and knowing my (future) brother-in-law might be in one of them. He successfully completed 50 bombing missions,” Losh said.
He and his wife, Jeannette, were married on Sept. 17, 1946 and were together for 63 years until her death in 2009. They had one son, one daughter, two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Losh was the Order of Christian Initiation sponsor for one of the grandchildren, Emaleigh Caudill, who entered into full communion with the Catholic Church at this year’s Easter Vigil. She drives him to church every Sunday from the Gables nursing home in Westerville, where he lives.
Losh received a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy in 1949 and a Master’s degree in 1951 from Ohio State and was employed by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) for 30 years, beginning in Columbus for eight years before taking positions in Wisconsin, Nebraska and Washington. D.C. After 30 years with the SCS, he spent 12 years with the Republican Party advising members of Congress on farm issues. He retired in 1992 and moved to Columbus with his wife in 1996 to be near their daughter.
Several members of his family have been members of religious communities. Three cousins belonged to orders of sisters and a niece is a Carmelite sister. An uncle, Father Joseph Losh, died in 2017 after spending 52 years as a priest of the Diocese of Columbus.
“The Catholic Church always has been a major factor in my life,” he said. “The one thing I insisted on was marrying a Catholic girl and I’m glad I did. I thank God for taking care of me all these years. If there’s any advice I’d want to give to young people, it would be to have faith in the democratic system and the Constitution.”
Al Surette (left) and Linus Losh, who both turned 100 in 2025, are embraced during a reception on July 20 at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church.