In 1963, LaVerne Biser and his family piled into an Oldsmobile station wagon and drove almost 2,000 miles from Texas to Maine to watch their first solar eclipse.
“The car was loaded with luggage and a bunch of my camera equipment because I wanted to get the perfect picture of the eclipse during our big adventure,” said Biser, who was then 45.
After that trip, Biser said, he knew he’d be putting thousands more miles on his car.
“That one eclipse was all it took,” he said. “I saw one and I had to see them all. I was hooked.”
Over the next six decades, he watched 11 more eclipses, traveling everywhere from New Mexico to the Black Sea for the perfect view.
Now Biser, 105, is hoping for one last moment in the moon’s shadow. This weekend, one of his granddaughters will drive him from Fort Worth to his daughter’s house in Plano, Tex., so he can witness his 13th eclipse — the last total solar eclipse to be visible in the United States for 20 years.
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“I probably won’t be around for the next one,” said Biser, whose birthday is in June. “So I’m hoping the weather will cooperate long enough for me to see this one. I’m praying for clear weather.”
He’s making the hour trip from Fort Worth to Plano, he said, because there, the eclipse will have one more minute of totality, meaning the sun will be completely blocked.
“To someone who loves eclipses, that’s a big deal,” he said.
Cloudy skies are forecast for much of the country during Monday’s eclipse, but at Biser’s age, he is accustomed to beating the odds.
“Crazy living is my secret,” said Biser, who recently shared his story withthe Dallas Morning News. “I’ve never had a sip of liquor or a puff of smoke — just lots of chocolate milk every day. And I continue to be curious, and I like to have fun.”
Biser gave up driving a few years ago, and he now has a caregiver since the death of his wife, Marion Biser, last year. He still enjoys tinkering with his homemade telescopes and marveling at the night sky, he said.
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“Lots of modern kids in big towns have never seen a starry sky,” Biser said. “Kids today don’t know about the Big Dipper and the North Star. I always felt lucky when I was growing up to see the Milky Way every night.”
Biser said he was raised on a farm in Ohio, where he spent a lot of time outdoors with his two brothers and developed an appreciation for science and the natural world.
After graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, he designed airplanes at General Dynamics near Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth for more than four decades.
He and his wife frequently took their three children on long summer road trips, stopping at historical sights along the way. Biser’s daughter, Carol Biser Barlow, said she’d visited 49 states by the time she graduated from high school.
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Barlow, who will host her dad in Plano this weekend, said she especially remembers that long trip to Maine when she was 16.
“We went straight north from Texas, crossed over into Canada, then dipped back into the U.S. again,” she said. “My dad loved to travel, and he was so impressed by that eclipse that it became his goal to fit as many eclipses as he could into his vacation schedule.”
Barlow, 76, recalled scheduling her wedding around the solar eclipse of 1972.
“I told my parents about two possible dates for my wedding — one on June 3rd and one on July 8th,” she said. “My dad said, ‘If you want me to give you away, you’ll have to pick the earlier date. I won’t be here on July 8th.’ He had an eclipse to get to.”
Biser has witnessed solar eclipses everywhere from Nebraska to Brazil, but he said his favorite trip was one he took with several friends to Williston, N.D., in 1979.
“I was able to document it perfectly, even though I was pointing my camera at a black sky,” he said. “Safety always comes first to prevent injuring your eyes. I was really excited when I saw that my aim was good, and I was able to capture the eclipse in its totality.”
On Monday, he said, he’ll be ready to snap more photos and enjoy every phase of the rare celestial event.
“It’s really something — there’s nothing like that dark sky in the middle of the day,” Biser said. “I always feel like a lucky man when I see it. It reminds me that no matter where you are in life, we’re all just a little spot in the universe.”
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