Albert Willard; World War I Vet Was 102

His stepdaughter said he wanted to live forever. He came closer than most.

After a two-week battle with pneumonia, Albert Willard, a World War I veteran and French Legion of Honor recipient, died Sunday in the intensive care unit at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital.

He was 102.

Willard served in France as a private with the 7th Engineers of the Big Red 5th Infantry Division, and saw action during the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. His job was to build bridges for American troops and scout enemy positions. He was wounded in combat.

Willard was one of two California veterans who were presented the Legion of Honor on Veterans Day last year.

Willard’s stepdaughter, Sylvia Long, 59, of Sherman Oaks, said he rarely discussed the war. “I really wanted to hear about [it], but he said it was all secret stuff and that was it,” she said.

“I forgot about it,” Willard said in a Los Angeles Times Magazine article published last November.

But in the interview he recounted an incident that occurred just as the war ended.

At 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, Willard and other members of E Company climbed from their trenches and joined German soldiers in celebrating the armistice. Then distant German artillery cut loose with a final volley, killing a dozen members of E Company, including its commander and two lieutenants.

“They wanted to get rid of all their artillery shells,” Willard said, “and even though it was a few minutes after the armistice, that’s when the dirty work was done.”

Whatever horrors Willard witnessed, they did not darken his outlook on life.

“Being in the war did not deter him in any way,” Long said.

Neither did old age. Long said he lived independently, working at his landscaping business and driving in Hammond, Ind., until age 88, when he and his wife, Jennie, moved to Sherman Oaks to live with Long.

“He was not a little man,” Long said. “You know how some people shrink when they get old? Well, he didn’t shrink an inch. This guy could pick up a gas mower with one hand.”

Willard survived a bad burn in 1995 and suffered through skin grafts and the amputation of a toe, Long said. The incident forced him to use a wheelchair, yet he propelled himself with his muscular arms until a few months ago, Long said. She said he could have lived a few years longer if not for the burns.

Born Albert Willardo in Sicily in 1897, Willard and his parents immigrated to Ohio in 1904. Shortly thereafter, his parents decided to return to Europe, but rather than go back, Willard ran away. He was 7.

“He told me he lived with relatives and worked as a water boy for the railroads,” Long said.

Willard joined the Army when he was 18 and worked in steel mills around Chicago after his return. Later, he became a landscaper.

In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Willard is survived by daughters Rena Gregory and Vina Grass, 16 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. today at St. Cyril’s Church, 15520 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Burial will take place Friday in Schererville, Ind.