Retirement doesn’t come easy to some, and a lot of older people find themselves re-entering the workforce – but not a lot of them find themselves winning public office at almost 100 years old.
Yet that’s just what Vito Perillo, independent mayor of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, did back in 2017… and now he’s been re-elected mayor at the sprightly young age of 97 for a second four-year term.
The WWII veteran, now believed to be America’s oldest current mayor, handily dispatched his opponents, getting a total of 38 per cent of the vote and roughly 300 more votes than his closest competitor.
His first term saw him oversee more than $8 million USD in improvements to local roads, plus $4 million in upgrades to local parks – including what he says is a wildly popular pickleball court.
Mr Perillo told News 12 New Jersey that being mayor was “another job” for him.
“I retired three or four times, every time I retired I couldn’t stay home. You look in the paper, there’s a job for this, I would apply and get the job,” he said.
September 22, 2024, will mark Mr Perillo’s 100th birthday – at which point, if he’s still in office, he will already have been America’s oldest ever mayor by about three months.
