When he was a kid, Lloyd Beutler’s dad promised him $100 if he never took up smoking.When Beutler was 65 years old, his dad finally made good on the promise.Beutler said it took that long for his dad to make sure he still wasn’t going to start.Steering away from the cigarettes has worked out wel l for the Salem resident who turned 100 on March 7. It’s one of the reasons he’s enjoyed such a long life, he said. Beutler was born to a farming family with a plot of land east of Salem in 1926.  Through a century of life in the Salem area and Oregon, he’s seen a thing or two. He recalled the New Year’s flood that led to the “Mellow-Moon tragedy” — the deaths of two road crew workers who fought to save the Marion-Polk county bridge from a waterborne roller rink and dance hall in 1943.  He also had fond memories of past Oregon State Fairs. He grew up in a time of homesteads and cooperatives in rural Oregon. His family rotated crops like hay and clover and raised some cows, whose milk they brought to a farmers’ co-op in Mount Angel.As he got older, he saw the style of farming he grew up with largely give way to large-scale commercial farming. He’s glad to have grown up when he did.“You won’t hardly see a cow in the country anymore,” he said.He came of age during World War II and skipped a year of high school to work the farm full-time, producing food for the war effort.  He said many young farmworkers were almost drafted during the Allied forces’ push into Europe.At first, he said, “They didn’t straighten that Battle of the Bulge out. … Then, of course, they did, so they left us alone.” SIGN UP: “Thank you for your fair, thorough, and fearless reporting.” Subscribing to Salem Reporter helps sustain in-depth, local reporting that Salem depends on. Invest in your community’s news. Subscribe today.He graduated from Salem High School, the only one in Salem at the time, in 1947.  Then, he was drafted into the Korean War. He said he was on the way to the front when he was singled out to learn to operate heavy machinery.He carried out his service maintaining roads near combat, including the main supply line for the war effort from Inchon Harbor, an important port, to the capital, he said.  After returning home, a neighbor told him he should get in contact with a woman who he had picked hops with when they were elementary schoolers, Maxine. “It was love at first sight,” he said. He and Maxine, were married for 25 years and had a daughter and a son, before she died.After a brief second marriage, he married a family friend, Janet, in his late 50s, and became a stepdad to her three sons. He was 18 years her senior.“Everybody said I robbed the cradle,” he joked. Janet died in 2022 after 37 years with Beutler.“We had a good life together,” he said.In his apartment at The Springs Living in Lancaster, he has a five foot tall photo board that Janet and two of his grandchildren made for him for his 90th birthday. It’s made up in large part of photos Maxine had taken of Beutler and his family. Beutler worked in road construction for most of his career and helped to build Interstate 84 and Interstate 205.While working on I-205 in Portland, he primarily maintained the haul road to get large equipment to and from the work site, he said.“A lot of people didn’t think that was a very important job,” he said. “We’re talking about a dozen big earth movers moving earth. … Trying to maintain a road and stay out of their way and everything — it wasn’t an easy project.” He celebrated his century of life in an events room at the Springs with his family and church friends. They had chocolate cake with Tillamook ice cream.After 100 years he’s glad to look back on a good family life and successful projects. “I’ve accomplished quite a few things,” he said. Contact reporter Skeet Starr: [email protected]. The post Salem man who helped build Oregon’s freeways turns 100 appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less