At 95. This Nashville Mechanic Has No Plans to Slow Down - or Retire

While most people spend their 95th birthday surrounded by cake and candles at a family gathering, John Larkin spent his under the hood of a car. Known around town as “Papa John,” the veteran mechanic clocked in at USA Motor & Machine in Nashville on his milestone birthday, because, as he puts it, there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

“I just enjoy it. It keeps your mind occupied, keeps you out of trouble,” Larkin told a local news station.

Born in 1931, Larkin has been turning wrenches since 1955, back when the first Tri-Five Chevy and Ford Thunderbird were rolling off assembly lines. His specialty has always been fast cars. A 2016 inductee into the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame, he was both a sought-after engine builder and an official at the historic half-mile oval track.

Even as he approached 80, Larkin wasn’t looking to retire; he was looking for a new job. That’s when he landed at USA Motor & Machine, where he still rebuilds five engines a week. During a recent shop tour, he pointed to a freshly rebuilt V8 destined for a Camaro, and his younger co-workers call him “the master book” for the knowledge he freely shares.

Larkin lost his wife in 2014, but he has two daughters, a granddaughter, and a crew of grateful colleagues who bought lunch and cake to celebrate his 95th lap around the sun. It’s rare to see cars from the 1930s outside a museum, and even rarer to see a mechanic from that same era still working.

But John Larkin proves that when you truly love what you do, and you do it well, age is nothing more than a number on a birthday card.