Age not slowing down elder Handley

Sports

December 4, 2006

At this year’s 27th annual Bridge Day™, Robert Handley became the oldest person to rappel off the New River Gorge Bridge. Handley, 78, is a member of the VBats Bridge Day rappel team.

Bridge Day is West Virginia’s largest one-day festival and also one of the top 100 festivals in North America.

Handley began caving and rope work in the 1940s. He has received the prestigious Lew Bicking award from the National Speleological Society, the only West Virginian to hold that honor. Lately, the West Virginia resident has been working with the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition to protect the Monongahela National Forest.

Handley says, “I won’t quit. I have a T-shirt from West Virginia Public Radio that says ‘God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things, and at this point in time, I am so far behind I’ll never die.’ That’s sort of my personal motto.”

Bridge Day rappel coordinator Benjy Simpson presented Handley with the New River Gorge Bridge Day Rappel Eagle award for being the oldest rappeller.

“May we all be as active as Bob when we reach our older years,” Simpson said.