COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — It's a celebration 95 years in the making, times two. Bob and Dick Gibbs, twins who each served 30 years in the armed forces, shared what they hold most dear as they turn 95 together.
“When I was about 50 or 60, I said, 'Boy, if I make it to 75, I'll be doing well,'" said Bob Gibbs. "And now I find myself at 95 and I've done super well.”
Since 1930, the two have been inseparable.
“I always kind of looked up to him as a big brother. He was 15 minutes older than me," said Bob Gibbs.
A call to service took their lives in different directions, but recently, that’s changed. Dick moved a few doors down from his twin brother in Colorado Springs about a year and half ago, he said.
Sunday, that meant they got to turn 95 years old.
“It was a relationship that I think nobody that isn't a twin could really understand, you kind of almost know what the other guy is going to do in advance," said Dick Gibbs.
The secret to a long, fulfilled life, Bob and Dick said it’s family.
“My wife," said Bob Gibbs. "She takes care of me, and she does an excellent job of it. And yeah, I suppose we have good genes too.”
Married 67 years, Bob’s wife Merla says she remembers the night he asked her out. Those family values are what Bob’s daughter, Michele, has carried with her into adulthood.
“Family is most important, with your spouse and the family you raise," said Bob and Merla's daughter Michele Burchfield.
As for what the family will do when this pair turns 100?
“Maybe I'll have them jump out of an airplane," said Burchfield.
Being a former pilot, Dick says you don’t jump out of a perfectly good plane.
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